


Cacti, Steel, and Surf

by grnidshrk



Series: My Home, New and Old [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-13
Updated: 2012-02-12
Packaged: 2017-10-14 17:46:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 25,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/151842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grnidshrk/pseuds/grnidshrk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny, according to Steve, was a city boy from New Jersey. At least that was what he had figured out from him mannerisms and speech patterns and he never really bothered to dig deeper. His partner was a sarcastic loud mouth who told everyone his opinion of everything and loved his daughter enough to move to a foreign part of his own country that was completely surrounded by water.</p><p>But our Danno, unbeknown to Steve,  was originally a cowboy. Growing up on a ranch from a young age only to have to deal with a man that was not his father and being torn from his home at the age of eleven, Danny couldn't help but become the mouthy country boy who didn't take shit from anyone.</p><p>Eventually he managed to fit the mold of a city boy well enough, but still deep in his heart is the longing for dry arid desert, horses, mischievous coyotes, and homemade cactus jelly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nostalgia

**Author's Note:**

> The italicized words are in Spanish . . . And two words from Hawaii . . .

  
Danny would be the first to admit that when he had moved to Hawaii he had hated the cheerful atmosphere of the place; he was going through hell with his ex-wife trying to keep his daughter as far away from him as possible. At any other time, he might’ve taken time to enjoy the place, but with such a negative reason for his being here, he couldn’t bring himself to do that.

Then—after six months of being on this damn island—Steve, Chin Ho, and Kono made this place feel, if not like home, more comfortable. He was getting used to being called _haole_ , the constant belittling for being a mainlander, and the sand and surf always in the background with the heat that was abnormally hot all the time—come winter he was not going to know what to with himself, it’d be a bit cooler but still not below freezing like he was used too after living in Jersey for so long.

It was like moving to New Jersey from New Mexico all over again, going from hot to warm year round to warm to freezing. The sand here in Hawaii was different though, smoother and finer, than the harsh coarse grains or thick clays from the deserts of his childhood. He’d been born on those plains, was mostly raised there until his mother had found a man she loved.

He’d never known his father, he never would. The man had just drifted in and seduced his mother then disappeared like the breeze in the New Mexican summer. He didn’t mind his step-father but, unused to another male vying for his mother’s attention, it had been weird. He’d been young, only eight, but he was old enough to know that this man wasn’t his father, wasn't family.

And then three years after meeting him, the man had taken him and his mother far from his home. He’d missed those rugged plains horribly after his mother and he moved to New Jersey with Craig. Even years after, though he told McGarett he was city boy, there were large parts of him that yearned for the scent of baked earth and the stables that had been his home.

Danny smacked his lips as he thought about the homemade cactus jelly made by Nana Ignacia, a neighbor--and practically family--who lived with her husband, Tse, near his grandparents’ old ranch. They used to put that on either homemade tortillas or bread for breakfast as they ran out of the house early summer mornings, ready to play in the hot sun and do chores for all the live stock.

His cousin currently ran it, breeding mostly cattle and some horses, kept the ranch going after the passing of their grandparents, Gran and Poppy. Danny had tried to visit as often as possible, especially after Grace had been born; he wanted her to experience more than just the upper-crust life style Rachel was used to.

With a deep sigh he turned from staring out at the waves on the horizon and finished the paper work for the last chaotic case they’d been on, the faint memory of dry earth and the suns reflection off of it during its shift reflected on his minds eye and the sound of coyotes calling to their families echoing in his ears.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Steve watched Danny through the window of his office, there had been some banter between Chin Ho and Kono earlier about their grandmother and some of the food they used to eat when they saw her, and during it Danny had gotten suspiciously quiet. He didn’t understand it, was he homesick for Jersey? He and Chin Ho had closed themselves in his office to discuss how to make their latest acts in an ambiguous but truthful way, so he turned to the man with the question in his eyes.

Chin sighed as he caught the look and saw the reason for it, Danny was once again staring out at the sun, but this time he had his finished report in one hand as he absent mindedly chewed on the thumbnail of the other.

“You can’t quote me on this, or even take this as a state of fact, it’s just an observation. But I think he might be a bit homesick, his daughter may be here, but doesn’t he have any other family? Friends? There must be something besides work he likes to do, but that’s all he’s done since he got here, is work. Well that and hang out with you or spend time with Grace, have you even bothered to ask about what he likes to do? He knows more about you and your family than we know about him.”

Steve looked back towards Danny, he had just licked his lips as if thinking of something delicious to eat but still had that wistful glaze to his feature, he actually knew very little about his partner.

In fact all he could actually recall his friend telling him was a rant about proper pizza, Rachel trying to take Gracie away from him, he liked blueberry pancakes, the reason for the name Danno, and that he had lived in Jersey before he moved here. For all the time they had spent together, Steve knew surprising little about the man who had been his partner for the past month.

Danny, well, Danny knew he’d been in the SEALs, he played high school football, he had a younger sister named Mary, knew he liked pancakes and was a bit of a health nut, and he knows that he had a rather strained relationship with his Dad.

Over all, Danny knew more about him than he did about Danny. It caused him to sigh, they were _Ohana_ —they watched each others’ backs in almost every situation in their lives despite how little time they’ve known each other—so how come they knew so little about one of their people?

Kono, Chin Ho, and Steve were all suddenly startled when “Home Sweet Home” by Blake Shelton began to play throughout the office, and they watched as Danny’s face suddenly lost the wistful glaze and brightened as he answered his phone. However, seconds after answering his phone everyone was lost, none of them had known that Danny spoke Spanish, so they each looked at the other before trying to listen in and discern what little they could of the conversation.

Danny, meanwhile, was ecstatic, he hadn’t spoken to his Nana in a few weeks, she was the only parental figure he had left and he missed her being in Hawaii. He planned on hopefully saving enough to bring her here over the Christmas holidays, he wanted her to see her adoptive granddaughter and maybe show her where he was living now. He missed the course orange sands of his home and his Nana and Gran’s food, hell he even missed his rather stubborn and cantankerous Poppy and the old myths of his Abuelo.

But he loved his job and was beginning to like, if not somewhat love, Hawaii with Grace, Steve, Chin ho, and Kono here with him.

 _“Mí hermosa Ignacia, how wonderful it is to hear from you.”_

 _“Still a charmer, I see mijo. How are you and Gracia doing?”_

 _“We’re good Nana, just got done with a hard days’ work catching the bad guys, being blown up, and shot at in regular intervals. It’s just work.”_

 _“Ha, just work, I swear you enjoy such things far too much. You’ve always been in the thick of things, despite your modest protests and fibs that you’re not. How is that new partner of yours working out, he keeping you safe at least?”_

 _“Safe? Safe? You think Steve McGarett is keeping me safe? That’s a laugh, the man is a walking target; I swear, he’s been the one to lead me into most of the situations and the cause of most of my injuries since we became partners.”_

 _“You wouldn’t trade it for the world, though, would you mijo? I’m sure you’re enjoying every minute of it there, despite the distance between here and there.”_

 _“Yeah, well, I might, just a little.”_

 _“Just a little, hmph, you still can’t lie to me to save your life niño. Anyways, I called to ask you about where you’d like me to send you some of my less perishable foods. Last time you about waxed poetic about missing them.”_

The others watched as the tips of Danny’s ears turned bright red and a rather bashful expression appeared across his face and he spoke the first English words they heard throughout the entire conversation besides Steve’s name.

“Yeah well, I haven’t had any of since I moved here and you used to send me some all the time while I lived in Jersey. Anyways give me a second, I’m never really at my small loft anymore, somehow I usually end up sleeping on Steve’s couch after a case, so I need to ask him.”

 _“Okay mijo, ask your amanto.”_

“Okay, hey Steve _–Wait a minute, he is not my lover!”_

Steve had perked up at his name and was about to acknowledge Danny’s summon when Danny squawked rather loudly something into the phone once more in Spanish, his eyes wide and his face slack in disbelief.

 _“You keep telling yourself that mijo. I will always understand, no matter when you realize it, but think, you are sleeping at his house, you pick at him, jealous when he goes out or flirts with women, you argue together about things your Abuelo and I used too, and when you have Grace, he is usually there unless he has to be away.”_

 _“We’re not lovers, not that I’d mind—but that’s not the point, we’re not lovers Nana, in fact I think he’s straight, he was a Navy SEAL for God’s sake.”_

Nana Ignacia chuckled at her—in all ways but blood—grandson, _“Whatever you say, mijo, now ask._ ”

Danny’s face was now completely pink as he looked at Steve and he had to clear his throat before he could ask him anything. The others glanced at each other, wondering what could cause the city boy so much embarrassment to cause his skin to redden.

“Ah, Steve, um, my Nana wants to send me some of her sealed and imperishable food, where should I send it? I mean I’m either here or usually at your place so. . .”

Steve raised his eyebrows as he listened to Danny, thinking that whatever his Nana had said to him, it must have been good.

“Go ahead and have her send it to my place, that way we can put it away and it won’t be taken or lost in that small cramped place you call an apartment.”

Danny smiled slightly, “’Kay, _Alright. . ._ ”

As Danny turned away and started to ramble off the address to his Nana, the others looked at each other and Steve smirked, after the little revelation earlier that day he fully planned on dragging out who exactly Danny’s Nana was and what she had said to cause his partner to blush.  



	2. Growing Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family you are born into are not always what you need.

Steve’s smirk as he watched Danny finish up his phone call grew. This Ignacia, Danny’s Nana, seemed to be a rather interesting woman from the reactions Danny had gone through with her on the phone.

He might have to go digging, possibly actually call her to learn about his partner, anyone who could actually cause the mainlander to blush—something none of them had managed despite all the teasing, especially about his cane—she had to have either a very lewd sense of humor or just knew the right buttons to push.

Besides, he enjoyed seeing that color on Danny, it suited him well and the emotions he was feeling—be it indignation, frustration, or embarrassment—caused the color of his eyes to pop.

Chin and Kono watched on as Steve went in for the kill after Danny hung up the phone, each interested to learn what new secrets were divulged in the oncoming banter.

“So . . . Ignacia, she an old girlfriend, Danno?”

The blond whipped around to stare incredulously at Steve; his mouth dropped open and his eyes large, still trying to comprehend that sentence. They all had heard him call her Nana, but teasing their mainlander was so much fun.

“What . . . No! No, she’s not an ex-girlfriend. She’s . . . well, it’s complicated but, she’s my grandma.”

That cause Steve to raise an eyebrow at him,” How is she being your grandmother complicated?”

Danny blanched as he realized he had spoken before thinking, almost just out rightly admitting that she wasn’t his grandmother by birth.

It’s not that he was trying to purposely hide where he had grown up from them, but he’d been teased enough moving to New Jersey from his home and he’d just gotten used to hiding those parts of him to the point where he kept that to himself. Hell, a few of his rather unfriendly coworkers in Jersey had found out once due to them walking in on a conversation about his home and then proceeded to make “Brokeback Mountain” jokes for the entirety he was there until he transferred to Homicide.

“I’m not related to her by blood. She lived next to my grandparents and was really good friends with them before they passed, I used to play with her grand kids and we’d crash at whomever’s house we were at; they called her and her husband Nana and Abuelo and I called mine Gran and poppy so we just called them both those names.”

Steve, Kono, and Chin all listened as he explained the family dynamics without going into real detail.

“She’s our Nana, blood or not, just like Abuelo was Abuelo, Gran was Gran, and Poppy was Poppy. When I was little I spent the most time with them and Nana and Abuelo’s own grand kids. “

Steve smiled at Danny, “I was just teasing you Danny, we heard you call her Nana even if we couldn’t understand much else, which reminds me, how come you didn’t tell us you knew Spanish?”

Danny shrugged, “I dunno, it just didn’t seem all that important, I mean how often are you gunna hear Spanish in Hawaii?”

Danny left out that he knew Navajo as well, growing up in a house hold in New Mexico with friends who spoke all three languages had taught him to speak them as well.

Chin was the one who answered him “Not often but it might still come in handy; you done with your report, brah?”

“Oh, yeah. Are you guys done? Steve drove us to work today ‘cause I crashed on his couch when we decided to take a break from the case and sleep last night.”

“Yeah, we’re done, let’s all go get a good night’s rest, yeah?”

Everyone nodded their heads affirmatively and they wandered over to their respective desks to pack up. Danny waved to Chin and Kono as they left leaning against the door jamb of Steve’s office as Steve put all of the case files away for the night.

When he was finished they walked out to Steve’s truck, shoulders brushing as they walked sided by side—neither noticed that they did this, they never did, it was a part their partnership that had been there since the beginning, each constantly touching the other. As they settled into the seats and Steve began to drive, they were both quiet, relaxing as they drove through the night to his home.

With such a relaxed atmosphere, Danny was startled when Steve broke the silence, “Why were you so apprehensive about telling us about Nana Ignacia, Danno?”

Danny shifted slightly as he thought about his answer, “You and Mary, you always had a parent around, even if your dad wasn’t exactly the most attentive, right?”

Steve nodded, so Danny continued.

“My mom, she didn’t really want me. She was around, but she was working and trying to finish school and I just got in the way; I hadn’t been planned, I was an accident my mother had received after a one night stand with a man who had disappeared afterwards. So, since we lived with my grandparents with Nana next door, they were the ones that raised me.

“Then, Ma met this man named Craig and he wooed her and she fell in love—me and home just didn’t fit in with her and him, despite the fact that she’d been raised the same way in the same place—so this man came in and twisted my world upside down and moved us both to Jersey with him after his business was through.

“I grew up so differently than the other kids—was raised with different ideals, religion, and mindset—that I was the outcast, one of the freaks. I learned to just hide what made me different, learned to fight better, dirtier, than I had before because they saw me as someone who was different. Hell, some of my old co-workers ragged on me when they found out where I was from on accident. So I’ve just gotten good at keepin’ it to myself, alright?”

Steve glanced over at his partner, his eyebrows furrowed. Danny had, he wouldn’t say blank but it was as close, a stoic mask in place on his face. It stilled anything he was going to say, not wanting to bring up any other bad memories his partner seemed to have brought up in telling him all of this.

They were quiet for the rest of the drive, Steve trying to apply everything he’d learned to his partner and Danny trying to bring back the joy he’d felt when he talked to Nana by remembering the summers he’d spent home after moving to New Jersey.

When they got to Steve’s house, Danny didn’t immediately go to his car prompting Steve to offer him a drink. They both knew that if Danny accepted, he wouldn’t return home and sleep on Steve’s couch.

Danny stood there, staring at Steve’s childhood home for a moment before he sighed.

“Not tonight, McGarett,” he smiled slightly at Steve, showing him all was fine, “Sleeping on that couch of yours is hard on my back.”

With a wave Danny walked towards his Camaro, the only thing he’d every saved up for and bought for himself since high school, and drove to his small loft apartment.

Steve wanted to call him back and tell him he didn’t have to sleep on the couch, that there was enough room for both of them in his bed, but he didn’t know how Danno would react to that. He watched his partner drive off before he went inside to have himself a beer, going over everything that Danno had told them tonight before realizing that he had never actually said where he’d grown up.

Finishing his beer as he looked out at the surf, he shook his head at how good Danny was at not giving up information if he really didn’t want to. As he made his way back inside to take a shower and sleep he resolved himself to not using any of his connections or authority to dig up information on his partner as he’d thought earlier—he’d find it all out by working with the man, being a friend to him.

He just hoped that Danno would trust him enough to tell him.  



	3. Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Persons mind is an interesting place, especially when you dreams and hopes are concerned.

  
When Danny had returned home and flopped onto his fold out bed, he heaved a heavy sigh from the very depths of his being. He wanted to tell Steve, but as he’d told his partner earlier, he’d built so many shields around himself that it was surprising he remembered what it was like to be a country boy than the City Boy persona he’d built to protect himself.

He was a man normally ruled by his emotions and the pain when he was younger of being assaulted due to his upbringing had caused him to learn quickly how to fit in as best he could until he knew more about the city he’d found himself thrust into without his consent.

To protect himself he’d built up this city boy shield, he wrapped it so tight around himself he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to drop it outside of his true home. But, then again, Hawaii, despite how much he pissed and moaned about it to Steve, was becoming more home to him than Jersey ever had been.

It wasn’t that he was much different than the shield he’d built; it was more the way he acted, how he responded to his surroundings. He still chattered like he did now, still took offence to being blown up and expected apologies or did the same if he caused them. It was more that as a City Boy he was always on guard, waiting to be hit from behind. The real him—the one he was more comfortable with, was the essential part of him, the cowboy part of him—was more laid back, less tense and rolled with the punches, didn’t mind getting into shit with Steve because that had always been a part of him, Nana had even said so.

Thinking of his partner, his teammates, he wondered if they’d accept him, the real him. The one that used to wake at dawn and watch the sun turn the ground the color of molten lava before it fully rose and it was just a sea of rocky red desert, plains of long grass and high jutting cliffs and rocks; the one who used to race horses across those plains for a date with the local chief’s daughter even though he knew the girl since birth and it was only to keep the hotshot, wannbe cowboy away from her.

With a small smile Danny figured they might, as long as he showed it to them in small doses, testing the waters to make sure there weren’t gunna be sharks . . . Danny put his arm over his eyes and groaned as he thought that, clearly Hawaii had started to permeate his brain, usually he’d say something along the line of testing for the coyotes looking to snare one of the calves.

Taking off his tie and toeing off his shoes, he decided to just sleep in his cloths and shower in the morning. Too many emotional upheavals in one day made a guy tired, especially recalling his relationship with his mother, but at least he had a piece of home coming to him in the form of food in a few weeks, at least he had that.

With a small anticipatory smile on his face Danny fell asleep and he dreamed.

He’d done this a lot since he moved to Hawaii, dreaming of home, most of the time they were recollections of memories. Memories of the time he was kid and as a teen visiting the ranch whenever he could, especially the long vacations—his mother and Craig didn’t mind footing that bill as long as he was out of their hair and trouble for that time, then they could be all about each other. So it didn’t feel odd at all to be on a cattle drive in his late teens when he opened his eyes.

Danny sat in Chaser’s saddle, leaning his elbow on the horn as he watched the cattle graze for a while before they herded them towards another area to graze for a few days. It was somehow uplifting to see those animals just casually walking around, no cares in the world. Glancing to his side, expecting to see Terrance, another teenager working on the ranch for some extra cash during the summer, but instead he saw Steve.

Now this Steve was younger, Danny had only seen in a couple of photographs in the man’s home of him this age, so the actions and the movement were all from the current man. Still, the both of them watching the herd in one of the few places where he had no masks, no attitude he had to portray, no defenses—the man that he would only admit to himself that he might actually be falling in love with—all of it was damn near perfect.

He may have only known Steve for a little over a month but the man had this way of getting under his skin and staying there, no matter what Danno told himself that the man was more than likely straighter than a freaking pole, he found himself being more amused at Steve’s odd propensity at getting into shoot-outs and general mayhem—hell he felt affection towards the man when he had to wipe blood from his face one day after Steve had taken a header into the wall after a suspect kicked him into it.

Despite the introspection he seemed to be doing as dreamt Danny couldn’t help the rush of heat he felt as he looked at Steve McGarett in slim fitting jeans, a white t-shirt and boots. The hat, well . . . it looked out of place on Steve, he couldn’t really imagine the man actually wearing one, but it still looked damned good.

As the day played out, just as it had with Terry years ago, Danny could feel the anticipation building—he remembered how this ended, right down to the very sticky, clumsy, yet satisfying end.

They made camp as they watch the herd settle down just after sunset, a small fire pit heating their dinner and the horses grazed themselves. Their sleeping pallets were side by side with their packs used as pillows they ate their dinner and sat side by side and stared out at the herd and the stars.

As they settle for the night, Danny remembers being startled by Terry, but this dream had become some wonderfully twisted combination of his hopes and his past, so he’s hyper aware instead.

When he feels Steve shifting beside him and movement as the man moves to crouch over him, he lunges and brings himself flush with his partner and finds Steve’s mouth with his own. Feeling this wonderfully handsome, stupidly brave, dangerous man’s body against his own makes him moan low in his throat. The kiss is at first just a hard press of lips against lips, then Steve opens his and Danny takes the invitation to start mapping out the contours of that cavern, running his tongue over Steve’s, trying to entice it to play.

Then Steve turns his head slightly and then they’re not just kissing, they’re practically fucking each others’ mouths, they're fighting almost, challenging the other to take control, to see who will be the first to surrender, just like in their verbal banter.

Danny’s hands are tugging Steve’s shirt up and reluctantly breaks their mouths from their mates just to rip it off over his head, his mouth immediately latching on to the skin between his partners neck and shoulder, ignoring Steve’s hands as they begin to unbutton his shirt and just _feels_ the groan making its way out of Steve’s throat as he finds a particularly sensitive spot and nibbles on it harshly.

Then, suddenly, Danny is staring at the sky as Steve uses one of his ninja moves to flip him over and latches his mouth to his left nipple, sucking hard before he lets it go just to breathe on it while he looks up at Danny with a grin. Then his head is there once again, this time taking that sensitive bit of Danny’s skin and biting and pulling it, causing the man to arch up into Steve’s mouth, a shot of molten lava traveling down his spine and he can’t help but to buck up into Steve’s hips, gasping at the feel of that hard length pressing to get out of those damnable jeans.

He moves his leg over Steve’s hip and uses that as leverage to flip them over, straddling his partner he grinds down, rotating his hips to prolong as much contact and create as much friction as possible.

He’s so close, they both are and they haven’t even looked at each other’s dicks yet but there was so much tension between the two that Danny doesn't care, he wants to come, and he wants to come _now._

He leans down and tries to devour Steve with their mouths fused together, their chest rubbing against each other as Steve grasps his hips pulling him down _harder_ , and _there . . . Just , dear God there, more friction, please, just harder . . ._

Danny wakes calling out Steve’s name, sweat beaded on his brow, his boxers damp inside his pants, he’s gasping trying to get adequate air into his lungs but he just can’t seem to get them to work right. . .

He’d had wet dreams of Steve the past few nights, but that was the first one that he was just himself, no attitude, no pretenses, nothing.

It was Fucking Explosive.

He felt so loose limbed and just plain fucked out that he didn’t want to move; he hadn’t had an orgasm that powerful in years. . .

He rolled his head to the side and groaned—he had fifteen minutes until he had to get up but the cum was cooling and becoming uncomfortable and he still didn’t want to get up.

With great dislike, he pulled his protesting limbs and body out of bed and into the shower, the hot water adding to his body’s euphoria.

When he was finished he sat with coffee for a few minutes before he had to pick up Grace for their weekend and just thought about his dream, wondering if he’d ever be able to be that open around Steve, around any of them really, to be that relaxed and _happy.  
_


	4. Mornings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His baby girl takes up his whole world, and Steve knows that, but he can't help but want a little more . . .

  
Steve stretched languidly as the morning sun warmed his skin where it peaked through the window.

It had taken about two weeks for his body to become acclimated to not waking up at 0500 or earlier hours every morning, and since then whenever he had the chance he slept in until about 0900 hours at the latest—despite his attempts he couldn’t sleep longer than that—and he still swam or ran every morning after he awoke, some habits he didn’t think he could break, nor did he really want to.

As his brain began to become more aware, memories of yesterday began to push its way to the forefront of his mind. The head of the weapon dealing organization they had caught wind of had ran, the chase he had given them had led him and Danny almost all the way across the island had been more tiring and yet more exhilarating than he had thought it would be. He’d never guessed that leading a task force on the islands he grew up on to be as hard as chasing international criminals like he did with the SEALs.

Where they had ended up was, unsurprisingly, near the home of one of Kono and Chin’s relatives, a person whom was a rather good cook.

This had led to a discussion and a slight argument between the two about which of her dishes was better and Danny becoming surprisingly silent and introspective. Whenever anyone of them had tried to talk to him they would have to say his name a few times before he was aware they were talking to him.

Then came that phone call and Danny’s face had lit up in a way none of them had ever seen him before and his mouth spewed words they could barely understand as he spoke so fast and without warning that none of them had the ability to translate what was being said.

Steve knew enough Spanish he could barely get by as long as they knew some English, too, but Danny had spoken as if he’d been speaking it his whole life and, if he had to hazard a guess, he more than likely had due to his Abuelo and Nana’s influence.

It was something that had highlighted the fact that he didn’t know his partner very well despite how easily their partnership just _worked_ , and that confused Steve.

He’d never just had a relationship with someone that just _clicked_ like they were two pieces to the same freakin’ puzzle and he didn’t know if, now that he’d realized it, that scared him or not. It wasn't that this was the first time he’d been attracted to a man before; it was more that Danno was both physically appealing and _emotionally_ appealing.

His partner didn’t just shake his head and allow him to get away with the crazy shit he did to get the job done like most of his previous teammates or partners did. No, this man instead challenged him, got up in his face and questioned not only his sanity but also his morality when he had to take drastic measures to get things done. Danny, while he called Steve a crazy son-of-bitch, was still one of the best people he had ever worked alongside. And he couldn’t say that Danny was his subordinate because a subordinate doesn’t yell at their superior about being to reckless or call them bat-shit crazy for barging in without adequate backup.

No, Daniel Williams was, in every way shape and form, his equal, his partner.

Steve finished scrubbing his head dry from his after-swim-shower, refreshed and ready to start the day. He had no idea what he was going to do with his first day off in two weeks, but he figured if Danny let him, he'd hang out with him and Grace before they came over for dinner and to crash.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Danny woke early because of his dream so he had decided to stay up and make sure everything was ready for Grace. Normally, Steve allowed him and Grace to stay at his house, and they would this weekend as well, but Danny had planned a surprise for both Steve and Grace.

Grace had asked just the weekend before when he had dropped her off with her mother if she could take surfing lessons, Rachel had said yes, but she could only learn during the weekends and on holidays—the only times Danny actually got to see his daughter.

At first Danny had been furious, but then an idea struck and he told Rachel that unless _he_ was the one to find her a teacher then Grace wouldn’t learn at _all_. Rachel had almost said then and there that Grace wouldn’t surf then but Grace herself had chimed in before she could get a word in edgewise.

“Does that mean that Steve, Kono, or Uncle Chin are gunna be the ones to teach me Danno?”

Danny couldn’t say no, especially to those hopeful blue eyes, “We’ll ask them, but if they say they can’t, then we’ll wait and find someone else okay?”

Grace had ended up so excited that both he and Rachel ended up giving in; both stared at each other down, each not giving an inch as to who would disappoint the last good thing that had come of their failed marriage until they both had finally conceded defeat to their daughter.

It helped that Steve had been bugging Danny about letting Gracie learn how to surf like she asked, despite the tiny bikini Danny feared she’d end up in.

It just ended up in Danny seriously contemplating on asking Kono to also teach Grace basic self defense so she could hit the guys who would pay her _any_ attention when she’s older.

Still, he figured that this would be a nice surprise for his partner and his daughter. He knew they’d enjoy it immensely; hell he’d already gotten her a board and bought himself some swimming trunks because he knew some how they’d get him in the water despite his protest.

The last time he’d gone swimming was . . . Well now that he thought about it, it had been before he met Rachel while he was still in college and he’d spent most of his days off from the ranch at the local watering hole with others like Terry, Nana’s grandkids, some from the local tribe, other ranches, and farms. There had been a lot of skinny dipping too, once the sun went down and all the younger kids had gone home.

Danny shook his head, he would admit, if only to himself, that a swim sounded good, but then so did some good food from home.

That last thought caused him to pause, food had been the very subject to bring all of this to the forefront of his mind but he couldn’t say he minded, it had caused him to seriously look at himself and his surroundings.

He had a chance here to be himself, not that city boy he’d shaped himself to be after being in New Jersey for 3 years, so today, he figured he’d go ahead and take it.

After all, Grace knew the real him, she’d met Nana and gone to the ranch and done everything he had when he was younger. Steve was the one who’d be surprised.  



	5. Ink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beach, sand, and the sun. Now what are those black smudges I see on his arm?

  
When Grace had seen her Danno in a pair of board shorts, some old battered sneakers, a tank top, and an over shirt, she squealed and ran to go grab her swimsuit, leaving her parents alone.

Rachel looked at Danny and sneered, “Showing your true colors, Daniel? I figured it would have taken a few months, possibly a year at least, for you to submit and change to suit your environment, you held out for less than I expected.”

Danny sighed and rolled his eyes, he’d never actually kept anything from Rachel—he’d told her everything about where he’d grown up and shown her just who he really was, she just liked until him until the veneer had worn off and they had a daughter and then chose _Stan_ as the man she would leave him for.

“Come on Rachel, what did you expect me to just stay the same throughout our entire lives and hate it here until I just decide to leave Grace? Think again, she’s my Daughter and I’ll be sure to follow you wherever you decide to take her.”

Rachel was about to retort when Grace flew into Danny’s arms, her bag hanging off her shoulders and her swimsuit clutched tightly in another.

“Are we going to the beach with Kono, Uncle Chin, and Steve, Danno? Can we go surfing, oh please, please, please, let them teach me?”

Danny just laughed as he carried her to his car, ignoring a fuming Rachel and teasing his daughter as they made their way to surprise his partner.

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Steve really hadn’t expect Grace to be the one to tackle him as soon as he opened the door, so he was rather surprised when he had a seven year old latched onto his leg, talking at least 50 mph.

He was so surprised he was still staring at Grace and trying to understand her that he didn’t notice what his partner was wearing until a few of Grace’s rambled phrases finally formed a coherent picture in his head.

“Steve, you’ll never guess! Danno said that I could learn to surf; he said you, Kono, or Uncle Chin could teach me as long as you said it’s ok. It’s ok right? Please, please, please, say it’s alright, ‘cause Danno is actually wearing a bathing suit and said he’d go swimming with us and everything, please?”

Steve just blinked down at the little girl he was starting to love like his own, the same little girl who last weekend had ended up curled up in his lap fast asleep after watching the Princess and the Frog on his big screen and had been using his childhood room as her own, as he tried to comprehend what she was saying.

Danno was allowing them to teach Grace how to surf? Danny was wearing a bathing suit? Danny was going to get in the WATER with them?

He looked up and almost drooled, He’d never seen his partner in such a form fitting shirt before and that tee clung to all the muscles in all the right ways to show off the body that easily kept up with his own. Then the rest of what Grace had said clicked in his mind and he looked at Danny in surprise.

“Really, Danny? I figured you rather be dead than to let Grace lean to surf?”

Danny shrugged and looked at the ground, “Yeah, well, I figured it’s Hawaii and Rachel was going to let her learn so if she was going to learn, she’d learn from people I trust.”

That Danny trusted him warmed Steve in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time, so he just smiled and looked back down at his favorite little girl.

“Well, ku`uipo first we have to get you a board—“

“Already done, McGarret.”

Steve cocked an eyebrow at Danny, “Yeah? You sure you got the right one there Danno?”

Danny rolled his eyes and looked Steve straight in the eye, “Really, Steve. You think I’m gunna let my daughter get hurt because she doesn’t have the right equipment?”

Steve conceded to that, if Danny was going to let Grace try this, he’d get her the things she needed, even if he felt she should wear three live jackets and chainmail to protect her from sharks.

He just smiled and looked back at Grace, “Well then, you think we should get started?”

“Yeah! Let go Steve, Danno.”

Steve watch as his partner just shook his head and went back to his car only to come back with a light green with purple flowers board for his little girl. He hadn’t even realized he’d been staring until Danny bumped into his shoulder with his own.

“This is alright, isn’t it Steve? You didn’t have a date or anything important going on this weekend were you, if you do, I’ll call Kono and ask her, or Chin.”

Steve almost jerked at the disappointment that had lanced through him when Danny suggested that he and Grace leave.

“No, its fine. I was actually going to call and ask you what you two were doing this weekend, see if you wanted to go to the beach or go on one of the trails around the island or something.”

The smile Danny gave him caused that warm feeling from earlier to come back tenfold, “Shall we then? Before my daughter somehow runs away with all the tropical fish and becomes one herself?”

Steve laughed as he looked down to the stretch of beach behind his home to see Grace already knee deep in the water waving at them to hurry up. “Yeah, let’s go play in the surf Danny. Actually, why don’t you call Chin and Kono over, we can all play around in the water and barbeque later, how that?”

Danny just smirked at him, “What you don’t think you can handle us two Williams on the water by yourself Steve?”

By this time they were all by the water, Grace having come up next to them as they situated some towels and chairs for when they wanted a break with a cooler full of bottles of water and juice Danny had brought. Steve looked at him in mock indignation as Grace giggled as she latched herself onto her father, getting him all wet.

“I can’t handle you? The mainlander who said he doesn’t like to swim? I’m a Navy SEAL; I can take anything you two can come up with.”

“Yeah, Yeah, Steve, keep telling yourself that,” Danny stripped himself of his over shirt, tank-top, and sneakers, displaying a tribal version of a badger tattoo that stood out against his skin, “Go ahead and call the other two, me and grace are going to go play while you do that.

As Danny was removing the clothes from his body, Steve’s mouth had gone completely dry, never having seen so much of his partner’s body before. The tattoo startled him, especially because of its design and the large amount of space it took up. The art covered his shoulder and arm with the words _Na-Hash-Chid_ under the claws on his bicep.

It took one of Grace’s screams to break him out of staring at her father, the tattoo mesmerizing him. He took out his cell and invited them both over, leaving a voicemail for Kono, figuring she’s probably out enjoying the surf as they were.

Steve went and changed into his trunks once again and was walking down to join the other two when Chin joined him.

“So he actually decided Grace can surf? I’m shocked I figured our mainlander was more stubborn than that.”

Steve shrugged as they approached the water, “So did I. I also never figured Danny would be a tattoo person.”

When Chin looked at Steve with a raised eyebrow he pointed to where the man and his daughter were currently having a splash fight. The elder let out a small grunt of shock, none of them had ever pegged their haole as a man who mark his person, they’d never thought he’d modify his body in any way actually so that he had was a shock.

“What is it? I can’t tell from here.” He was telling the truth; from far off the tattoo was a mess of black smudges made unintelligible by the water and sun, so he turned to the only one of them to get a good look at it.

It was then that Kono appeared in between them.

“What’s what? Why can’t you see it from here?”

“Danny’s tattoo. It’s an animal of some kind, but I couldn’t really tell, it wraps around his shoulder starting from the shoulder blade, wrapping around his bicep to end at the top of his left pectoral muscle, it has some words underneath it on the bicep but I don’t know what they mean.”

“It’s a Badger.”

They all turned around to see Grace standing beside them, fetching a juice from the cooler, “Nana and Abuelo said that it fit his personality, so he got it when he was younger and all of his friends at Gran and Poppy’s home all call him that.”

The three stared at the little girl before Chin knelt beside her, “Why would they call him that and what language is it?”  
It surprised them all when it was Danny that answered the questions, body still dripping with water and glistening in the sun, highlighting the very thing they were talking about.

“It’s Navajo. They gave me that because I’m apparently very tenacious, strong willed, protective, and have confidence in myself. For a while Abuelo thought about calling me a coyote but that animal has such odd and conflicting stigma such as being one of the good guys or being a pain that she decided that while I was both of those the Badger fit me better.

“Now, since we’re all here, who’s going to teach Grace how to surf?”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Danny’s Tattoo](http://euphoriapeace.deviantart.com/art/Tribal-Badger-122232484)


	6. Target

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dealing with the that we don't want to do, but still have to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is not a happy one, I know it's a very drastic change from the last chapter, but it was needed to get where I'm going with this. There will be more interactions with Grace later on. Hell, Danny may actually go without the tie, even if it is his signature in the show, this is my Story!

  
The team’s and Grace’s weekend seemed so far away from Danny right now, despite the fact that it had only happened three days before.

They’d had so much fun; Kono and Chin Taught her how to balance and stand up on the board, then had her do it and helped her up each time she splashed into the water, his baby girl just popped right up and laughed, shaking the water from her hair as if she were a dog.

He and Steve had gotten into some kind of water war where the two of them tried to outdo each other—who could splash the other the most, who could swim farther, hold their breath longer, sneak up on the other while they’re unsuspecting.

They had dinner on Steve’s lanai, some white fish with a sweet sauce and vegetables and rice, which Chin went and picked up once it started getting dark and they were getting hungry.

Danny, Steve, and grace did the same thing the next day, but had pizza for dinner, and just played outside and were freer that Danny and Steve had had the ability to be in the past few weeks.

It had all been so _fuckin’_ perfect and now he was here, called out by the HPD to help with a hostage situation the only way a person with his skills could.

He breathed deep and looked down the scope at the man who had decided to rob a jewelry store and then when he couldn’t get out, take everyone hostage. The shot, if he had to take it, would be hard, the bars on the stores front, the distortion from, glass, the breeze—the seven people this man is threatening to kill.

 _Inhale._

Line up the shot.

 _Exhale._

Tease the trigger.

Inhale.

The target was getting ready to shoot another customer.

 _Exhale._

Orders given.

 _Inhale._

Fire.

 _Exhale._

Danny closed his eyes and slumped against his perch, the knowledge of just what the shot he just let off did to the person and the visual he got from his scope told him that the man would never do something like this again.

A man can’t endanger people when he has his brain liquefied from the impact of a projectile going at that velocity—this man would never do anything again, his brain wasn’t just liquefied, it and pieces of his skull were now painting a grotesque picture of the wall that was behind him.

Danny packed up his rifle and carried it down to his car after reporting into the officer in charge that the target had been neutralized.

Target. Neutralized. Right. Anything to dehumanize what he had just done, who he had done it to.

The drive back to Five-0 HQ helped clear his head and calm him down, be he was still not in the mood to deal with anyone, he never was. He could handle this but it took him a few hours, sometimes days, to accept who, what, where, and _why_ he had to kill, especially in such a calm, calculating manner.

By just being around Grace and knowing that she was the reason he did things like this helped, but he didn’t get to see Grace until tomorrow morning before school so he needed the isolation, needed to make himself feel human again before he tried to be even a modicum of what was normal.

It wasn’t that rationalizing it was hard, it was the fact that he understood, he knew why he had to shoot, that killed him. He still felt pain every time he had to take someone’s life like that, but that he can push it all away after a few days is what scars him. He’d talked to a few councilors, they told him that he agonized over all of it meant he was good, still fit for duty, still human and sane.

But the knowledge that another man’s life just ended deliberately by his hand still threw him off his game for days after.

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Kono watched as Danny closed and locked himself into his office with a quiet click, knowing that if he was acting this way then he had to have done what he was called out to do.

Chin and Steve had left earlier to pick up their murderer and hadn’t returned yet so they didn’t know a situation had occurred where Danny had to place their current case on hold and attend to it.

Chin didn't know that Danny was one of the Departments best shots, and they certainly didn’t know that he was one of, if not the best, sniper they had on the island. Steve probably knew—it was more probable that he did rather than didn’t, actually.

Kono sighed as she prepared to run interference, the week had started out so well too.

That great weekend playing around with the team and Grace only to have a murder of a foreign national and now this, it was heart breaking.

Danny had let down so many walls around them this weekend—he explained about his tattoo, he talked about his Nana, Abuelo, Gran, and Poppy. He’d almost admitted outright to be acting like something he wasn't, even though he still had yet to divulge where he was really from and hadn’t quite dropped the entire act he put up if Kono was right. .

Kono would never have guessed he was from somewhere other than New Jersey but Grace had destroyed that thought irrevocably.

 _“Daddy likes it here; it almost reminds him of home but there’s too much water for him to be comfortable yet. But it’s too far away and that makes him sad and he hates the distance more than he disliked it in Jersey. He doesn't hate here, just that it's not home, not yet at least. He told me he thinks it can be.”_

With how much Danny had complained that Hawaii wasn’t like Jersey, she’d figured that that was all he was, some mainlander from Jersey, but thinking about it, she figured it was more than likely the despair from being so far from what he considered _home_ to really be.

And now . . . Now she was pretty sure all of the walls he’d knocked down last weekend were back up, probably with extra reinforcement too.

What were they going to do to help their mainlander?

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Steve and Chin walked into a surprisingly quiet HQ, Kono staring at Danny’s office with the door closed and the man nowhere in sight.

“Cuz?”

Kono looked at her boss and her cousin, “Hey,” she spoke softly, not really willing to break the somber atmosphere, “Leave Danny alone for awhile, okay guys? He got called out for the HPD while you were gone.”

Steve and Chin Ho shared a confused look, “What do you mean he got called out, Kono?”

A sad smile crossed her face as she looked at Chin Ho, “Didn’t you know, cuz? Danny is one of the best shots on the island with a hand gun, and definitely in the top three, if not the number one, with a rifle. They had a hostage situation and they called him to be the sniper.

"He had to shoot the guy and he closed himself in the office when he got back.”

Steve just stared at his partner's closed door before he turned around and walked back out of the office, confusing the other two.

When Steve returned thirty minutes later he was holding a white bag, a sealed jar, and two cups of what appeared to be coffee, then he proceeded to pick the lock to Danny’s office and disappear inside.

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When Steve walked into his partner’s office he was engulfed by darkness and Danny was nowhere to be seen.

After he softly closed the door he placed the malasads, jar of jelly that had arrived earlier this morning at his home with Nana Ignacia’s return address on it, and the bitter black bold flavored coffee he knew Danny liked on the desk and walked around the other side of if to see his partner sitting in the corner, his bad knee stretched and his good knee bent with his arm lying against it. His head was leaned back and his eyes were closed.

He left the food on the desk and sat down next to Danny, waiting for the man to break the silence himself, and just stayed a comforting presence beside his partner.

So they sat there in the dark until Danny finally broke, finally found something to talk about that was, in a roundabout way, related to what had happened that morning.

Danny finally talked about where and how he had grown up, not knowing Steve had seen where his Nana lived on the box of goodies she’d sent.

Danny had decided to say _fuck you_ to all his insecurities and doubts and decided that after this morning, being the city boy he wasn’t was just too much, he needed to be just himself.  



	7. Prickly Pear Jelly and Malasadas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Food always makes things better, especially when its from home . . .

When Danny started to talk after they had sat there for close to two hours, Steve didn’t jerk, almost didn’t move at all, but he shifted slightly to show Danny he was listening when the man began to talk, his voice hoarse from not being used since that morning.

“My Abuelo, Tse, fought in WWII.”

Danny paused to swallow and Steve handed him the coffee, though cold now, he’d brought to drink.

“He was one of the code talkers and a soldier; he was a good shot and took to the training they gave him, and when I was getting old enough he taught me some things. When I was ten he taught me how to fire an old hunting rifle to help keep the coyotes away, how to aim and take that calm breath before I took the shot.

“I think they were shocked that first time I took a shot at the post Abuelo set up for me. He and Poppy just stood there and stared and I didn’t know why. _‘I was supposed to hit the target right Abuelo, Poppy?’_ I’d asked. And they just looked at me and asked that I see if I could do it again. And I did, for about twenty five of thirty different shots I hit where ever they directed almost exactly.

“It wasn’t something I had ever thought was that important, as teens we were more prone to racing against each other on horseback or see who could do this or that better. We’d all been instilled with a healthy respect for guns and knew not to mess around with them.”

Danny took another swallow of the cold coffee, “Until I went to the New Jersey Police academy.”

He paused and just stared at the opposite wall for a while. Steve brushed his shoulder against Danny’s to show the man he was still here with him, and he turned those now stormy blue eyes to pin him where he sat.

Steve hadn’t planned on seeing so many emotions in those eyes—despair prominent among them—and he almost looked away, afraid to face them head on. But Danny was his partner, the man whom he spent not only his time at work but his time off of work as well. This was the man whose daughter he was slowly falling in love with as if she was his own while he was falling in love with him as well.

He couldn’t look away; he couldn’t leave the man to face this alone as he figured Rachel had made him do so in the past.

The small smile Danny gave him was worth it all, he decided, even if it was slightly broken.

“I got a lot of astonished looks when it came time for the firearms qualifications, and they had me try more than the other cadets. When it was established that I was just a natural shot and had fired rifles since I was young, they had me try the sniper rifle. I was one of the people to call if they couldn’t find anyone else while I was in vice, and eventually they had me sign up for a stint in SWAT just before I met Rachel and then Grace was born and I switched to homicide.”

Steve watched his partner, the way his eyes that had been closed once more as he’d leant his head against the wall opened with shadows and memories making his eyes glaze over.

“Abuelo and Poppy had never prepared me for taking a human life. It’s different when you have a pistol, assault rifle, or a shotgun—it’s so different than a sniper rifle. Somehow its more intimate, you’re watching your targets moves waiting, just waiting, watching this person that’s _living_ and then you pull the trigger and it’s gone.

“Their blood is on the wall and your shot, your bullet put it there.”

The blond was quiet for a while and Steve rolled all of this around the inside of his head. Sure he’d done a whole bunch of classified things, shot enemies, and ambushed international criminals, but he’d never been the sniper on any of those, never really thought about how they thought about things, what they saw through their scopes. It had never occurred to him that sniping could be . . . _personal_ , but when he thought about it soldiers when taken hostage were just taken hostage, if roughed up a bit.

Snipers weren’t, they were killed without reason because it was known that they had killed your friends, your comrades.

That was their purpose, to kill. They were good at it, that’s why they were the snipers.

So they just sat there in silence, neither really knowing what to say after those last few words and the thoughts they brought up.

Then Danny’s stomach growled and Steve smiled slightly so he got up and retrieved the last two items he brought in with him.

“There was this box on my doorstep when I got home last night, from an Ignacia in New Mexico. Given what your Nana’s name is I assumed that was her, so I brought a jar of . . .I actually have no idea what this is, but I suppose you do? And I brought malasadas, I figured you liked them, and considering she sent this to you, you like this too, so . . .yeah.”

The change in his partner was almost instantaneous. Steve watched as he practically ripped the jar open and used his index finger to taste it contents and _moaned_ with such abandon that Steve’s mouth went dryer than the Sahara Desert in the summer.

When he first tried to speak after that display nothing came out other than a croak so soft, Steve wasn’t even sure he actually made a sound, so he cleared his throat and reached into the bag with the malasadas and retrieved a plastic spoon.

“Uh . . . Here, Danno. Brought you a spoon.”

The look Danny gave him made him feel as if he were on top of the world.

“Steve, I . . . You have just made this day better, just this and sitting here, and the malasadas . . . Thank you. I . . . This is home to me, Food. I know you guys like to tease me about the clothes and me not liking pineapples, but this is . . . This is my pineapple, the fruit that made this.”

Steve looked at the blood red jelly inside the jar, darker than it probably was in the light of day.

“Is it supposed to be that color, or did she put food coloring in it?”

Danny burst out laughing, unable to contain himself; he’d known after all that Steve was a health nut, but still asking about food coloring in _homemade jelly_?

“No, Prickly Pears really are this red, Steve,” Danny said once he’d calmed down enough to talk without breaking out in laughter, “They’re insanely sweet with just this good kick of tanginess, their perfect, especially in the morning.”

Steve looked at the jar in curiosity once more. He’d heard of prickly pear cacti but he hadn’t known you could eat it.

“You can eat cacti?”

Danny just grinned at him, “The fruit you can, you have to burn all of the spine and needles off of them first though, the actual cacti, I’m not sure about.”

He eyed his partner for a moment, confusing Steve before he saw Danny take that spoon and scoop up just a small bit and hold it out to him, letting him have a taste.

Steve weighed the pros and cons of eating something that clearly didn’t want to be eaten because of its spiny protections, before he decided to take the plunge and didn’t even grab the spoon, just swooped down and enveloped it with his mouth with Danny was holding it, causing the man to blink, not really comprehending the Steve had really just done that.

Danny watched as Steve considered it, taking a spoonful of it himself to smear on top of a malasada and trying not to moan as the flavors of his old home and his undeclared new home coated his tongue.

With a sigh, Danny relaxed and stared down at the jar in his hands before he looked Steve in the eye, his own half way between the storm blue they had been earlier and the sky blue they normally were.

“I miss it, New Mexico I mean. It’s always been home for as long as I can remember, even after I was moved to New Jersey by my mom and I’d lived there for years, it never felt like home. I miss they people, even though Abuelo, Poppy, and Gran have been gone for a few years or more by now. And it’s funny because this place . . . It reminds me some much of home but it’s not.”

Steve watched his partner some more, “Ya know Danno, it could be, I dunno, another home? Have two? I mean you live here, you have Ohana here with me and Grace. Kono and Chin, too.”

Danny looked at Steve, quiet for a few minutes and his eyes unreadable.

“Yeah, I think I can find a home with you and Grace, Kono and Chin. Think you can handle a cowboy in Hawaii?”

Steve looked Danny up and down from where he was sitting, causing the man to blush faintly, “Cowboy, huh? You sure don’t look like one?”

“I blame that on years of confinement in New Jersey, trust me, I’d be more comfortable in jeans, a tee, boots, and an open button down.”

Steve just smiled at him, “Huh, don’t know if I can imagine you in anything other than your office wear or the swim trunks you wore at the beach.”

Danny just rolled his eyes at the teasing, “Just you wait McGarret, one of these days I’m gunna say, screw professionalism and actually come to work dressed like that, then tell me what you’re imagining.”  



	8. His Daughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little girls always know surprising things about their parents . . .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mija-Daughter  
> Ku'uipo- Sweatheart

It took close to two and a half days for that weary haunted look to disappear from Danny’s eyes when he let his mind wander, and when he was acting like their _haole_ again they were thankful.

It wasn’t that he acted very different than normal, it was more that the smiles he bestowed them didn’t reach his eyes and he didn’t argue, put up much of a fight, or complain when he thought they were going to do something crazy. Steve, Kono and Chin noticed, harassed Danny as if everything was normal in front of them and when he thought they were alone, he was almost what they would qualify as gentle for the Ex-SEAL Commander.

The grateful smile Steve was rewarded for not really treating him any different was telling, in ways they knew the two didn’t notice. Something had shifted between them, it probably hadn’t gotten romantic yet, but their leader knew more about Danny than any of them, probably due to the time Danny had locked himself in his office just after the shooting.

Then the smiles came easier and he began to nitpick and argue with Steve more, especially after a night when they knew Danny had taken Grace to dinner and to see _MEGAMIND_ , and he seemed to be sleeping better instead of living off coffee.

They were just happy to have Danny back to normal, the quiet somber man who had stood in his place was a stranger to them all and his disappearance let them all breathe easy.

It wasn’t easy when a man was down, especially when a team was as close as they were.

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It was once again the weekend and they were all relaxing at Steve’s house, Kono and Gracie once more working on the little girl’s surfing.

Gracie had known on Friday afternoon when Danno had picked her up form school that something had changed with him. She couldn’t really know what it was given she was so young but those who knew him, especially Steve, had noticed he was now carrying himself more laid back, less tense and wary of his surroundings.

All she knew was that her Danno was acting like he did when he was where he considered home. He was acting like he was on the ranch in New Mexico; she could tell her Daddy had finally accepted this place as home like he’d never done in Newark.

  
Neither Chin nor Kono had said anything even though they’d noticed the change in their mainlander that early Saturday morning, the tension that had always been present in his shoulders, and the shadows that had been in his eyes after the shooting, was gone.

Instead there seemed to be this odd loose limbed air to him that they had never seen.

They watched as the smiles came more than they ever had and the sarcasm less biting and more playful, especially around Grace.

The little girl seemed ecstatic for no real reason and somehow she’d conned her father once more to get in the water with them, even challenging him to a race.

When Mary came back to the McGarett’s childhood home, she was treated to the spectacle of the native Hawaiians lounging on the beach in the afternoon sun as Gracie tried her damndest to cajole her father into learning how to surf with her, chasing him around in the water as Danny easily kept away from her.

Steve was making hamburgers when she stepped out onto the lanai, alerting them to her presence.

“I thought your partner didn’t swim?”

Steve looked out at the water and his eyebrows drew downwards as he no longer could see his partner, the tension eased however as Danny erupted out of the water behind Grace, scaring her into fleeing.

“He told me he knew enough for survival. We were all surprised when he came into the water with us last weekend. If I didn’t know better I would swear he’d grown up on the coast or something.”

They all jumped when Gracie answered, none of them had been paying attention to the two in the water while they talked.

“Danno used to spend his free time at home at the local water hole—it’s an underground spring that he said was fed year round. All of the local kids used to play there, and kids my age play there too; it’s where I met Maria, she’s the only friend I still talk to from the mainland.”

Mary’s eye brows rose as she looked at the soaked form of her brother’s partner, taking in the tattoo and the defined muscles usually hidden beneath his dress shirts and ties clearly showcased by the black, white, and blue [board shorts](http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/6/24/305/27123/ITEM/Fox-Racing-Torn-Boardshorts.aspx?WT.MC_ID=54006&SiteId=10557879-3079859-0273d38bc10eaa3841bcd1670a244d56) riding low on the man’s hips.

“I thought my brother and Chin were supposed to be the stealthy ones around here, how do you and a seven year old manage it, Jersey?”

Danny just grinned like a great white, “I may have moved here from Jersey, Mary, but that doesn’t mean I _come_ from it. Food done yet, Steve?”

Mary looked oddly at the man while the ex-SEAL nodded, “Yep, was about to call you two, apparent, water creatures in.”

They all dug into the food, including the youngest McGarett, and after the majority of the eating was out of the way, Kono finally asked the question that had been floating through her mind since the weekend before.

“If you’re not from New Jersey, where are you from Danny?”

Danny was quiet for a few minutes, chewing the last bite of his second burger slowly as he contemplated telling everyone else where he was from before he shrugged, not commenting.

Chin was quiet, just watching Danny and Steve, as the others tried to pry it out of the mainlander.

Steve had made no move to appear curious or wanting to know where his partner came from, in fact he was just smiling as he watched Danny avoid and dodge their questions with snark and an unassuming evasiveness that they didn’t realized they were being led away from the topic of Danny’s _home_.

The man clearly knew where his partner was from.

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Later that night after Mary had left again and they had come in from outside and cleaned up Chin once more observed Danny, this time with a sleepy Grace sitting in her father’s lap as he brushed her hair before bed, while Kono helped Steve with the dishes from lunch and dinner.

There was a certain softness to their mainlander neither Chin nor Kono had ever seen in him before while he catered to his daughter’s current needs. His eyes were soft and the love in them rocked the native islander to his core, not to mention the words the man was whispering to his baby girl.

There was no doubt that this man loved his child, it showed in everything he’d done for her, was still doing for her, and it was humbling that someone could love another so much.

Grace sighed as her Danno brushed her hair, a ritual they’d had since she was very little.

Her mother brushed her hair, but never with the slow smooth strokes he used. It was how he had learned, first with horses and now with her, she’d giggled when he first told her that’s how he knew how to brush such long pretty hair when he had none himself.

It was soothing and one of the things that were solely theirs, like tending to horses and enjoying cactus jelly that her mom complained was too sweet.

“Danno?”

“Yes monkey?”

“Do you think . . . That maybe one of these days we can go riding like we do when we visit Nana? I miss it and I miss giving Chaser sugar cubes and apples, he always nibbles on my fingers after.”

“I’ll look around _mija_ , but I make no promises. I miss him, too.”

Chin, Kono, and Steve by now were all watching and listening to the duo as Grace turned her head to look at her father with a giggle.

“Of course you miss him Danno, he’s been your horse all his life, he won’t let anyone else ride him ‘cept me. And you’re the one who taught him how to accept commands an’ everything; I bet he misses you just as much.”

“I know _mija_ , now go give Steve, Kono, and Uncle Chin hugs good night, it’s time for bed and you practically a zombie after all of the playing we did today.”

She giggled again as she ran to each of them and grasped them tightly around their legs, “Thank you for teaching me more ‘bout surfing, Uncle Chin an’ Kono, good night. Steve. Are we having pancakes for breakfast tomorrow?”

Steve chuckled at the little girl as he knelt to give her a hug as well, “You’re the boss _ku’uipo_ , we’ll have pancakes tomorrow and probably with that jelly your Nana sent, okay?”

“Yay! Night Steve.”

“Good night _ku’uipo_ , sleep well.”

Danno grinned, “I’ll see you guys later; I’m going to go read to her the next chapter of _Artemis Fowl_.”

The others waved as he disappeared down the hall and Kono turned to eyeball her boss.

“You know where he’s from, don’t you?”

Steve grinned at their Rookie, unrepentant, “Yep, and don’t even try. No matter what you do to try and get me to spill, I’m not going to. He’ll tell you when he’s comfortable enough to do it himself.”

“Hmph, see if I help you out next time then.”

She turned and started to walk out as Chin and Steve chuckled at her antics, “See ya later, Brah. Take care of those two, they’re good for you.”

Steve blinked at his friend, “Yeah, I know, I don’t know how Danny did it, but he and Grace have got me, and got me good. I can’t complain, though, if anything I’m grateful. He brings me back to earth and trusts me enough to watch his back and shares his daughter with me. Besides, he can be just as crazy as me sometimes.”

Chin grinned as he remembered the day when Danny stopped a taxiing jet with the Camaro or the story of Danny driving around Oahu going seventy with a coke distributer bound to the hood of it with bungee cords during the case of Meka’s murder.

“He trusts you with a lot more than just his daughter and his back, brah, a lot more.”

Steve stared confused as the elder man left, unsure if he wanted to explore the thoughts and feelings Chin’s statement bought to the surface.

“He being all stoic and mysterious, again?”

Steve turned to look at the blond leaning against the wall of the hallway and shrugged, “A little. I think he just enjoys being enigmatic.”

“Hey, I know someone whom likes to pretend he’s a strong, has no weaknesses, soldier that gives his partner heart attacks when he’s doing something dangerous without backup.”

“Yeah, well, I know someone who likes to pretend they’re a city boy who follows all these rules only when the HPD is looking. Otherwise he can do just as crazy as hell shit like the soldier, so he can just shut up.”

Steve watched as a sly smile crossed Danny’s face, “Steve, if I wanted to, I could drop the act before you could shoot or start a stampede.”

Steve blinked as he realized the city boy-persona was gone, even the Jersey accent.

He tried to push away the heat he felt as Danny continued to speak as if he were home, just the way Danny was talking was doing more for him than he felt his partner would really be comfortable with at the moment.

“Yeah, well,” Steve cleared his throat, “As nice as it is to know you remember your roots, I have to ask that you admit to them soon. Kono is going to start plotting soon and Chin’s warned us about her, Woman can be devious when she wants to be.”

Danny sighed as he sprawled in Steve’s recliner, “True enough. I take it you all heard Grace’s request earlier?”

Steve nodded, “Yeah. Chaser?’

A fond smile spread across Danny’s face as he thought about his long time companion.

“Yeah, Chaser. I was there when the mare, Pear, gave birth to him. Silly foal, soon as he could stand and walk steady enough, he followed me around as I worked. Stubborn just like his rider, Nana and Gran said, I can’t really deny it either.”

Steve tried to imagine the horse Danny spoke of so fondly even though he wasn’t very knowledgeable of equines.

“You’ll have to introduce us sometime.”

Danny stared at his partner, trying to gage the man’s sincerity, “Yeah I will, won’t I?”

Those intense blue eyes and softly spoken words expressed a lot more than just what was being said to the two men and the feelings they invoked were things neither one were just yet ready to act on.

The rest of the night was spent in companionable, if somewhat charged, silence.


	9. Adorable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CHildren always know when their parent is hurting

Grace crept through Steve's house looking for her Danno a few hours after midnight, unable to sleep easy. She knew he'd keep his promise, he always did, but she wanted more right now, she wanted to help like Danno did when she was hurt.

There had been so many people there yesterday and she could see he felt sad when he picked her up on Friday, and she hadn't had time yet to help her Danno feel better.

Playing together with her and Steve usually helped with anything that was on her Danno's mind but there was something in him that still hurt, even after Friday and Saturday together. She'd hoped that bringing up Chaser would help, and it did a little, but the hurt in his pretty ocean blue eyes still hadn't gone away.

It was like the hurt that had been there when Mommy had told him she was moving to Hawaii with her and Step-Stan. He wouldn't say anything, just let it hurt because he was Danno. He was strong and looked for the bad guys. Mommy never realized how much she'd hurt Danno with this, but since moving here and meeting Steve, it hadn't really mattered till now.

Grace snuck next to her daddy on the couch, looking at his face. He looked tired and sad, even as he slept. Carefully she crawled up onto the couch with him before curling up on his chest, inside his arms, she didn’t notice when the person whom she inherited her own eyes from open theirs.

Sleep glazed blue eyes watched his daughter and couldn’t help but feel warmth in his heart as his daughter curled up with him in the early hours of the day. He smiled, softly and sleepily, as Gracie fell asleep in his arms, just like when she was younger.

With a content sigh, he tightened his arms around his little angel and fell into the first content night of sleep in days.

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Steve woke with the dawn’s light, slightly wired from what had happened last night. The energy between him and his partner had jumped up several notches.

He couldn’t deny that there had been a rather severe form of tension and sexual attraction between them from the beginning, but with everything he found out about his partner, it seemed to grow and change meaning.

In the beginning it had been about a physical, sexual attraction for the man.

Then it was a physical attraction with a respect for his guts, then attraction, respect, and awe in the compassion Danny continued to show in all the right places for all the right people.

Grace, Kono, Lily Graham, hell Danny even had a soft spot for Toast—the man tried, most definitely tried, to have this tough Jersey cop exterior. He poked and prodded at Steve and everything he found wrong with how he did things, showing no fear, yet those Blue, Blue eyes always gave this odd little glimpse to what the man was feeling, what he thought.

It had taken Steve months to finally learn to read his partner. Danny could read his facial expressions, his body language.

Steve could read Danny’s eyes.

It didn’t matter how Danny moved his hands, they were just another way he talked. But Danny’s words were not always what he was really feeling; he was surprisingly good at hiding things like pain unless he was beyond caring.

It was one of the reasons he hadn’t pushed for more last night. Yes, Danny had loosened up, was starting to feel better, but that doesn’t mean that he was completely over what he had done.

The blonde was still tired and still sad about the life he had taken, but he would be fine now, with a little bit more time.

Still, Steve really couldn’t help but to wonder and hope that Danny had meant what he said, letting him meet Chaser.

It meant that Danny was willing to take Steve home, let him see his roots, the very thing that made him the man he was at his core.

Steve’s feelings were no longer just a physical attraction. Over the months that they’ve been in each other’s lives that attraction had turned into something he was still hesitant to name, though he had a good feeling that this was probably what love felt like.

From what Chin had said last night, he wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Even if they hadn’t said anything to each other yet, he could feel something was coming to a head between them, something was changing.

But he knew nothing would really happen, even if he had already fallen in love with the blond man and his brown haired little girl, at least not yet.

There was a lot Danno needed to get off his chest first, needed to say, to shed.

When that happens . . . when that happens, then they’ll be what they should be.

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Steve stealthily made his way through the house, checking on Gracie first and becoming slightly alarmed to not find her in her bed.

Swiftly and silently, he went to check on Danny, making sure that the little girl hadn’t gone to her dad in the middle of the night.

When he stepped out into the living room he froze and relaxed at what he saw.

Gracie, his and Danny’s ku’uipo, was lying on her side curled up on top of Danno, one arm tucked under her as the other gripped his shirt, while he had one arm wrapped securely around his baby girl.

It was one of the most adorable things he’d ever seen.

He was in no way, shape, or form telling Danny that he found him adorable.

It didn’t mean he wasn’t going to take a picture of it though.

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Danny woke to the smell of waffles and, he hope that it was real instead of that turkey crap, bacon.

Knowing his partner the way he did, the man had been up for a few hours and had already done his morning rituals before starting breakfast.

Gently shifting his daughter off of him and onto the couch, he made his way into the kitchen silently to watch Steve as he cooked.

A soft smile graced his face as he watched Steve watch what he was doing with the same concentration as he applied to his job. The man was so intense and didn’t know it, those eyes that changed color with his moods and the subtle nuances of shifting muscles and barely there facial expressions. Danny had enjoyed watching his partner from the beginning—this man who felt things so strongly, so intense despite his almost iron control—so much so, that puzzling out what Steve McGarrett thought had become somewhat of a specialty of his.

Steve knew him just as well, despite his city boy mask, and it showed with the silent support he’d given Danny after the hostage situation, the understanding of the words that had gone unsaid last night.

He knew most would balk at his thoughts, the way he just _knew_ he and Steve would eventually cease to be separate people, the inevitability of them coming together.

He was anxious for it to finally happen, excited even. There was so much they still had to learn about each other though, something he’d been thinking about since last night after the conversation about Chaser. But they had time, lots of time, especially since he had finally decided that this place was almost as much a home as New Mexico.

Danny remembered the way he and Rachel used to fight, bicker. It was basically foreplay, their passions clashing against each other, combining in an all consuming heat and a fierce love.

Eventually that passion faded, burnt itself out, though, and even with their daughter and the few things they did share in common they couldn’t pretend to be what they used to be, they couldn’t go back to it and their relationship crumbled to pieces around them. There were times their passions flared when they were with each other once more, but too much had been said, too much hurt inflicted for that to be channeled into anything other than scathing remarks or acidic barbs. Time was healing the wounds but they’d never be able to be together again.

Him and Steve had that same passion, but there was more, something that had been missing when he’d been with Rachel that Danny couldn’t outright name. But what he did know was that not only did they have that passion he and Rachel had once had, but it was stronger, they had the strength and understanding to hold each other up, support the other when they needed it, despite their different experiences.

It was true that he and Steve still had numerous differences, but those and what they did share made their relationship, non-existent as it currently was in the romantic sense, stronger. Their strengths and weaknesses played off of each other, helped the other see what they couldn’t, what they missed.

They, despite the cliché, made each other whole and right.

Steve now knew the biggest parts of him, there was little besides small details, stories, specifics, that he didn’t know. Things that he would learn over time, just as he was sure he’d learn about Steve.

So, steeling his nerve with the decision he knew would change what they had, he took a fortifying, silent, steady breath and moved behind Steve without the man noticing, hoping to take that last step towards what they both wanted, were trying their damndest to reach while still intact.

At the slight brush of a hand at his shoulder, Steve turned to see Danny looking at him with an unfamiliar look in his eye. Danny smiled softly at the curiosity and fondness in the blue-grey eyes inside the head that was slightly cocked to the left, unable to help the sharp flare of amused adoration that spiked when Steve did that. The man had no idea how adorable he was when he did that.

Before Steve could say anything and Danny lost his nerve, the shorter man leaned up and softly caressed Steve’s lips with his own.

Steve’s breath hitched, slightly disbelieving, as his partner, the man he loved, pulled away from that first kiss.

“I thought . . .”

Danny shrugged, not taking his eyes from Steve’s.

“I . . . You and I are already so much, we’re an ‘us’ without actually being there. We spend all of our time together, you’re like a-another dad to Gracie already, you know me, know who I really am despite how much I tried to hide it . . . I just felt that you, that we, knew enough about each other to try. It’s something we’ve both . . .”

Steve cut Danny off with a kiss of his own, knowing and understanding what Danny was trying to say.

“I get get’cha, Danno.”

The smile he received from his partner was slightly lopsided, the most beatific one he’d ever received from the man and it highlighted the person Danny had tried to hide underneath the crass mask from New Jersey.

Neither of them could help the happy grins they shared as Danny helped him finish preparing breakfast.    



	10. Names and Kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny and Steve finally have a conversation about what Steve is in Danny's Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Makua-  [link to definition](http://wehewehe.olelo.hawaii.edu/cgi-bin/hdict?e=q-0hdict--00-0-0--010---4----den--0-000lp0--1e-Zz-1---Zz-1-home-makua--00031-0000escapewin-00&a=q&d=D12480)

Danny, Grace and Steve spent the most of Sunday in town after they had all had breakfast. Most of the food at the house had been eaten when they’d had everyone over on Saturday and they’d finished rest off with their morning meal. After a morning of being lazy and playing with Grace the three went to town before Danny and Steve had to drop Grace off with her mother.

They’d gone to the grocery store and argued over what foods constituted as healthy. Steve spoiled Grace by getting her some gummy fruit snacks made with real fruit juice behind Danny’s back, Danny snuck some regular foods into the basket with Steve’s Low fat crap, and Grace giggled the whole time as she watched the two of them bicker.

Without really realizing it, they’d become a cohesive family unit, complete with two fathers, two uncles, and two aunts that Grace already adored.

An older woman with her husband shopping near them at one point chuckled to herself as he grinned and shook his head muttering “newlyweds” under his breath as they watched the two argue over cheese. Two teen girls giggled and pointed as they watched Steve try to convince Danny that Pineapple was an acceptable fruit. They were totally unaware that they were once again acting as if they were a married couple with a daughter giggling at their antics in tow.

They had been partners for over several months and had lived in each other’s back pockets since the beginning. The cracks they’d heard from suspects and the people they’d questioned during their time together had always been brushed aside and never really taken seriously.

It was such a comfortable and domestic thing to do, neither Steve nor Danny had really noticed what exactly they had been doing together until they dropped Grace off and she gave them both hugs and kisses on the cheek, telling them both good bye and that she loved them.

Steve had hidden his shock until they both had gotten into the car and then he just sat there for several minutes, trying to comprehend Grace’s last words to him. Danny was smiling slightly at the man, waiting for him to come out of it on his own.

Given the family Danny had been born to, he couldn’t find any fault with Grace becoming attached to Steve, Kono, Mary, Chin Ho, and Kamekona. He didn’t have much in the way of family left, not by blood any way, and his relationship with his mother was . . . uncomfortable at best and almost violent at worst.

He loved his Gran and Poppy, but other than them it was up to him to really create his own family. His cousins were . . . alright, and as were his Aunt and Uncle, but they always treated him differently, as if he was what kept his mother, his Aunt’s younger sister, from being everything she could have been. They were not people he had ever really wanted to have influence over Grace. He didn’t have much to say about Rachel’s family, but he had enough to say about his own that he at least knew what kind of people he wanted in her life—blood or not.

The fact that his daughter was coming to love the people he had begun adding to his version of family, the people he’d chosen himself, made him glad.

And now she’d told the man he was coming to love that she loved him and she’d miss him. She’d already asked a few times what she was supposed to call Steve, something he hadn’t yet had an answer for, and now the man knew how important he was to the two of them.

As if the kiss wasn’t enough of a tell.

He’d spent his whole life making his own family, Gran and Poppy being the only ones that were there from the beginning, and trying to find his own home in the world. He’d thought he’d had it with Rachel but that passion had lost its life shortly after it began and they were stuck with something they had to try and fix and follow through with.

And moving here, to this ‘pineapple forsaken hell-hole,’ was probably one of the best things to happen in his life.

In New Mexico he had Ignacia and the tribe that, while he wasn’t part of them by blood, he’d grown up with. In New Jersey he’d met Rachel and his few friends in Homicide that hadn’t had problems with his bisexuality.

Here in Hawaii he’d met Meka, May he rest in peace, Kamekona, Kono, Chin Ho, Mary, and Steve.

Most especially Steve.

The ex-SEAL may not know how to really fit in, civilian-wise, but he knew enough for it to work with the cases and the people they had to talk to, definitely more than Danny at least. He was a passionate man who held true to his ideals and fought for what he thought was right. He adored Gracie, as if she was his own daughter, and was insanely protective of those he felt were, in essence, his.

That the Five-0 team, most specifically Danny and his daughter Grace and Mary, were at the top of those he’d kill, and has killed, to protect just proves the lengths the man would go to.

Danny would never admit it to Steve, at least not out right, but he’d do the same. Hell, he’d do more than the same if what he’d done the day Steve had lost his phone to the ocean with the SEAL and serious PTSD problems on the Pearl Harbor tour ship had proved anything.

He loved the man, was beginning to love Mary like the unrepentant trouble maker little sister she was (just like Kono), and he was hoping that Steve wanted the same things.

Danny continued to drive towards the McGarrett home, glancing periodically over to his partner to make sure he hadn’t stopped breathing.

“She said she loved me.”

Danny put the Camaro in park and looked at his partner, “Yeah, she did. She’s actually been asking you know, about what to call you.”

“Call me?”

“Yeah, call you. My Monkey is a smart little girl. She asked me about that before I had even thought about trying to see if things would work between us.”

Steve just sat there, trying to comprehend that revelation as Danny got out and started to gather some groceries.

“Before? How could she ask you that before you had even started to think about—about this? I mean, we only just kissed this morning! We haven’t done anything—”

“She’s seven and a very intuitive little girl. Besides, she says we act a lot like Nana and Abuelo used to act before he passed, always bickering, but in a loving way, according to her.”

“What did she want to call me?”

“She wanted to call you _Makua_. She said it’d fit, because you act way more like a dad than Stap-Stan, all he does is buy her expensive things, you actually talk with her and play with her, torment me with pineapple with her. She told me it meant parent, like a parent, guardian, relative, and what not.”

Danny grabbed the bags from Steve hands and proceeded to put the contents of them away while Steve tried to process what exactly Danny had just told him.

“I—she—really?”

“Yes,” Danny turned and pushed his partner onto the stool sitting next to the island, his hands resting on the commander’s biceps as he stared into Steve’s eyes, “She calls Mary ‘Aunt Mar, Chin Ho ‘Uncle Chin,’ Kamekona she’s adopted the nickname ‘Uncle Shamu’ from me and she’s not sure what to call Kono because she young still, but I’m thinking she’s leaning towards ‘cousin Kono.’ You are almost with me when I take grace to do things, whenever I have her, we stay here—you’re bout planning on painting you childhood room colors she likes. Despite how odd our partnership came into being, all the cracks people have made about use are startlingly try.”

He leaned in a brushed his lips against Steve’s, trying to reassure the man. They’d only officially stepped into these roles this morning but had been playing them for so much longer that it felt unsurprisingly right—for the both of them.

“Are you sure it’s okay for her to call me that? I mean, she’s basically calling me Dad—”

Danny stopped him with a kiss that went deeper than any of the others they’d shared so far.

“She asked me and I looked up it up, I already know what it means. I’m her Danno, I always will be, and I’ll always be her Daddy. If this is okay with you, you won’t be Step-Steve, you _will_ be another parent not just some schmuck who tries to ply her with expensive things but never actually talk to her. If you want to, this is your choice.

“I’m in this for the long haul with you Steve. I’ll take what I can. If you don’t, then I’ll live. But you have to make sure with Grace, you can’t change your mind with her—”

“I wouldn’t, Danny, I—I love you both too much.”

Sky blue met slate blue as the blond smiled, “I know, that’s why I’m telling you this.”

Steve smiled as it finally all sunk in that this was going to be what he wanted, he was going to be part of that family. _This Family._

It warmed him in ways he couldn’t express with words so he decided to show Danny just how much.

With a kiss.  



	11. At A Gallop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why is it, that every time they get some time to relax, immediately after words they are forced to go go go, and then sleep the next days off they get away because they've been up for nearly three days straight?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What many people have requested and waited for . . .

Danny groaned and cussed as he rolled out of bed early Tuesday morning, barely comprehending what he was doing. Chin was on the phone apprising him of the current situation that had come up at two in the fucking morning.

Yesterday they’d had to run around the damn island looking for a millionaire’s daughter who’s been kidnapped to get a measly 2 mil out of the man and they didn’t get back in the office until late, and left the office even later after filling out all of the paperwork that was generated when Steve decided he had to crash a police cruiser into the suspect’s vehicle.

He’s had such little sleep that he didn’t even think about what he was putting on as he talked to Chin.

Kono heard the door open of the Five-0 HQ a turned around to wish Danny good morning when her words stuck in her throat. She watched as Danny made a bee-line to the coffee pot, mumbling Spanish as he poured himself a mug full and sighed, his eyes closed as he drank it. She tried to comprehend what she was seeing, but it was almost too good to be true.

She’d seen Danny without out the tie, hell she’s seen him in jeans and boots before, too. But she’d never seen him dressed in jeans as he was now.

Danny was standing there, still half asleep, in faded worn blue jeans that showcased his ass nicely, with a plain white t-shirt and one of his usual work shirts, blue, thrown on top open and not tucked in, and what she assumed were brown cowboy boots. It looked good on him and he seemed a lot more relaxed in that than he did in his usual “professional” attire.

Kono twitched slightly as she heard the HQ doors opening once more and turned to see Chin and Steve walk through the door, carrying things for breakfast at this ungodly hour. Chin barely paused as he took in the sight of Danny dressed as he was, not letting it phase him. Steve, on the other hand, stopped in his tracks and looked Danny over admiringly.

Steve had to admit, when Danny had threatened to come to work in what he was comfortable in he’d had the picture of obscenely tight jeans and t-shirt. It just figures that, while it wasn’t what he had imagined, it still looked damn good, especially since Danny seemed to have forgotten to brush his hair before driving over. The tousled hair and stubbled jaw added to Danny’s appearance, making him look more like a tired country boy than some mainlander who was out of place in any setting you put him into.

It looked good on him and Steve had to really resist the temptation to go and run his fingers through those wild blond strands.

They hadn’t advertized or even clued Chin and Kono in that they were together yet, waiting to see if it was what they both knew their feelings were leading them toward. So far since Sunday all they’d had the chance to do was have dinner that night and then chase a lunatic with delusions of easy gotten money run them ragged yesterday.

It wasn’t that they felt they _couldn’t_ say anything to the other two, they just wanted to get used to the change in their relationship first before they started to publicly announce the change in that status. Of course this was a given that Chin and Kono somehow didn’t know already; those two could be eerily well informed about their lives when they wanted to be.

Chin Ho just glanced at Danny as he continued to sort through the information they had on the main computer, “Still asleep, brah?”

Danny glanced up, slightly more awake than he had been, and when he answered only a small trace of his Jersey accent remained. “Yeah, a little. I didn’t get home until around 1 and it’s,” Danny squinted at his wrist watch, “ 2:45 in the morning. I’ve had an hour sleep after just go, go, going all day yesterday. Hell, Steve looks like a zombie too, if you hadn’t noticed.”

Chin and Kono, both of which were exhausted as well, looked at their leader and saw him leaning a hip against the computer table, his eyes closed and slow even movements of his chest.

Their boss had fallen asleep standing up.

Kono giggled a little hysterically before she poked Steve right under the ribs causing him to snort and jerk out of his little nap, “Boss, we’ve all been awake since at least 5:30 yesterday, if we have to be awake so do you.”

Steve just nodded and looked at Chin, “Sorry, gotten used to sleeping during this time. What have we got?”

Chin went back to the table and pulled up the photos of the crime they were now investigating.

“1:30 this morning the alarm of the Hawaiian State Bank sounded. When units arrived, there was nothing there, including several millions of dollars that were in the vault. A good portion of the safety deposit boxes were emptied also. Officers alerted us and then cordoned off the area before canvassing it for evidence and possible suspects. All they found were two dead security guards, they used a garrote.”

Danny winced at the picture, “Was the murder weapon still there or did they take it with them?”

“They took it with them. Whoever did this were professionals. There wasn’t much evidence to find, not even a finger print. A crime scene team is going over it now to see if there was anything Kono and I missed.”

After working for several hours, and hunting down information, they had a hair and a partial print to go with. Chin was at the palace going over security footage and several of the traffic cameras in the area to track their thieves. After tracking them to an alley, they disappeared so Steve and Danny left to take a look around.

As they looked through the barren dirty alley they found two black duffle bags, filled with the clothes and supplies they recognized as belonging to their thieves.

As Steve looked through the bag, Danny looked through the rest of the alley when he saw a door, _Employees Only_ emblazoned boldly in red across it and scratches on the lock. Without telling Steve, Danny walked around the front and looked at what the building was only to see it was a maintenance building branched off of the _Sheraton Princess Kaiulani_ , one of the many hotels in Waikiki.

When he heard Steve yelling for him he swiftly walked back to where he’d left his partner.

“Yo, Rambo, I’m fine, I was just seeing where the door with the scratches on the lock led. It looks like a maintenance entrance to a hotel. I’m guessing—considering they had to pick the lock—that our thieves are guest here at the hotel.”

Steve’s eyes were narrowed and his jaw tight as he looked Danny over, looking for any sign of foul play. Steve hoped that Danny hadn’t seen him jump when he had, seemingly, appeared out of nowhere. It was a habit that Steve realized Danny didn’t even realize he was doing, as if he was a ghost.

Steve had just opened his mouth to _berate_ Danny about not telling anyone where he was going when they both hear a giggle and a soft “oh.”

There standing at the mouth of the entrance was a couple, tourists by the look of them, whom it appeared had been wanting to use the alley. Steve and Danny traded looks, the length and color of the hair they had found matching the husband’s hair and it was the middle of the day, a bit early and rather conspicuous to be necking in an alley.

Danny strode up to them and smiled charmingly, “Hi, I’m Detective Daniel Williams. We’re currently investigating some suspicious luggage we were alerted was in the alley. Tell me have you seen any suspicious characters around?”

Steve was silent as he watched his partner get their names and when they arrived at the hotel. He had to admit, his partner was good at getting information out of unwilling suspects without them knowing.

The couple had been on the island for a week and were planning on leaving in the next few days, this was an anniversary surprise for his wife. When they said that, there was a subtle thrum of unease and wariness radiating off them, as if they weren’t sure that they were telling the truth.

When the two had left, Danny had their contact info, what room they were in, and their names.

Alexandre and Annette Moreau.

Chin, after Danny called him, dug around and found out that they had only really existed for a few months, their background sketchy and bland. It was apparent that everything before was fabricated. After some more digging and using photo recognition they found the real identities of their tourists.

Anna Maria and Darren Granger, he was a wanted in several countries for thievery and forgeries and she was wanted in even more for murder, hacking, fraud, and extortion.

Together they were quite the dynamic duo and had managed to avoid detection, until after they were long gone at least, for close to a decade.

After making this discovery they compared the partial print they’d found at the scene and matched it to Anna Maria. The hair they believed belonged to Darren. After piecing all of this together Steve sent Kono and Chin to see if they could inspect the maintenance building for proof the Granger’s were there, even possibly the money and various documents and items they had pilfered from the safety deposit boxes while He and Danny tracked down their thieving duo.

They split up and when Chin and Kono found Darren with two dark bags thrown over his shoulder, they reacted, ordering him to put down the stolen goods and put his hands in the air. When he put the bags down and then pulled a gun, Chin didn’t even think as he put two bullets in his chest and shoulder.

At the same time, Steve and Danny walked cautiously up to the Granger’s hotel room, both pulling their weapons to see the door already open and the room thrashed. Gently easing it open further they canvassed the room, hoping to find something. It was when they heard rapid footsteps from behind them that they noticed the closet door was swinging silently.

Steve and Danny barely acknowledged each other as they both took off down the hall after Annette, they missed the brunet woman by mere seconds and she grinned fiercely as the elevator doors closed on her bag laden form. Steve pressed the down button and they waited, their bodies thrumming with energy, then they were headed down for the ground floor. As soon as they reached it, the saw the chaos left behind from Annette after she had barreled her way through the lobby.

Bursting outside, they barely caught sight of her as she commandeered a motorcycle and jetted off down the road. They scrambled into the Camaro and took off after her, Steve at the wheel. They lost sight of her momentarily and when they caught up to where the bike was she was gone and it laid there on the ground, engine still running. Danny pointed at the rather frantic man that was shouting at one of his employees so they got out and went to talk to him.

Ho'ola'i Juarez looked at the two men as they quickly strode towards him with a purpose. He muttered under his breath in Spanish, irritated to not only have lost a horse but to have to deal with these two _haoles._

 _“I hate Mondays, something always goes wrong on Mondays. Insane bitch, now I have to find my horse._ I am sorry, sirs, we cannot help you with anything right now, we are having a bit of a crisis with one of our horses.”

Steve opened his mouth to explain the situation when Danny placed a hand on his bicep to silence him. _“Un momento, por favor, Señor._ You just said that some woman just stole one of your horses. We’ve been chasing that woman. Do you know which way she went?”

The dark skinned man faced the two full on and looked at the two of them and then noticed the badge hanging on each of their hips. _“Sí, I’m the owner,_ Ho'ola'i Juarez, she went on one of our toughest trails at a full gallop. I was preparing to go after her myself.”

Danny began talking to Señor Juarez in rapid fire Spanish, leaving Steve in the dust, so he wandered over to some of the ranch hands to ask questions and missed when Danny left on a tall Smokey Black Gelding, Merucry, at a fast trot that eventually transformed into a gallop once he was on the trail.

Chin Ho and Kono arrived slightly bloody from Darren and asked about his wife. When Steve turned to ask Danny he realized that the blond was no longer there and the owner, Señor Juarez was watching the trail the woman had supposedly gone down.

With mounting frustration, Steve called Danny’s cell only to get a message that the person he was trying to reach was without service. Steve began to pace as Chin and Kono explained what they had pieced together thus far. Learning how ruthless Anna Maria Granger could be made Steve’s anxiety rocket to new levels for his partner.

He trusted Danny, explicitly so, and knew the man could take care of himself. But the recent change in their relationship, the fact that, for once, _Danny_ was the one without back up, unnerved and worried him. He never minded getting into situations with the blond at his back or vice versa, didn’t even mind going in by himself. But now, he realized almost numbly, he was more than likely feeling what Danny must feel every time he went out without any back up of his own.

Danny and Mercury thundered down the trail, Danny’s eyes quickly and efficiently taking in his surrounding, looking for any sign of Annette Granger. He slowed Mercury as he noticed Anna Maria’s tracks becoming less heavy and rushed and more sedate, knowing she probably thought she was safe and none would come after her.

Danny listened to his surrounding intently as he and Mercury now moved at a slow trot, the gelding steps soft and silent on the packed earth, alert for sounds much like his current rider in case of danger.

Then Danny heard it and he and Mercury both stopped, barely twitching to catch the sound again.

Dismounting, Danny quietly soothed and reassured the gelding, hushing him as he drew his weapon. Danny silently walked to the area where he heard faint cussing and rustling of the underbrush from Mrs. Granger’s pacing as she tried to call someone on her cell and the snuffling as Diamond, the young mare Anna Maria had taken, relaxed in the in shaded area, nibbling on grass.

Anna Maria Granger froze as she felt cool metal nudge the base of her skull.

“Five-0, drop the phone and put your hands behind your head.”

She closed he eyes and cussed loudly as she did as she was told, gritting her teeth, pissed she’d been found. When his hands reached hers to cuff them together, she reacted trying to grab his holstered weapon, however Danny was on high alert and subdued her to the ground without much problems, knocking the wind from her lungs.

Anna Maria wheezed as Danny flipped her over, cuffed her hands in front of her, hauled her to her feet, and helped her mount Diamond for the ride back. Leading Diamond by the reins, Danny scooped up the fallen cell phone as he led them back to Mercury and lifted himself onto the gelding’s back without dropping Diamond’s reins.

Steve paced for over an hour when they heard a few of the ranch hands shouts. The majority of the Five-0 looked towards the commotion and went to see what was going on. They were treated to the sight of Danny sitting atop a tall dark grey horse, leading another brown one with a white Diamond in the middle of her forehead and Mrs. Granger seated on its back, coming down the trail towards the Stables.

The three currently present took the time to admire Danny as he sat and moved with the horse with a sense of grace they hadn’t seen in their team mate before.

Steve watched as his partner guided the horse where to go with sure movements, no hesitation or uncertainty. Danny had never seemed as at home as he did unless he was with Grace or, he was startled to realize, alone with him.

He hoped Chin and Kono didn’t hear him swallow hard, his groin stirring slightly as he watched his partner do two of the things he excelled at, at once. Being a cop and riding a horse had never really been anything he’d ever associated together, save for probably those that patrolled New York’s Central Park, but Danny seemed to blend the two effortlessly.

Danny dismounted Mercury and the ranch hands helped Mrs. Granger off Diamond and right into two of the HPD’s finest. He petted Mercury slightly, smoothing the hair along his snout and telling him his thanks. He personally led the horse towards Señor Juarez, wanting to personally thank him for letting him go after Mrs. Granger on one of his horses.

Señor Juarez Stared at Danny for a few moments after accepting the reins, sizing him up, _“You are an excellent rider, Detective. Thank you for returning both of my horses to me safely.”  
_  
Danny smiled that same lopsided smile he’d given Steve the other day, broadcasting the enjoyment he’d had.

 _“You welcome, and thank you for allowing me to take Mercury to find both your horse and Mrs. Granger. I appreciate it greatly, I haven’t had much in the way of chances to find a place I and my daughter can ride, or just had a decent ride myself. You have some good trails here, I hope you won’t mind too horribly if I bring my daughter and come one day for just a ride and not chasing after suspects.”  
_  
Señor Juarez grinned, _“If your daughter has learned from you, I don’t believe we’ll have a problem with.”_

The grin on Danny’s face as he walked towards his team was practically euphoric, and while Steve had gained a few grey hairs from worry and realized how Danny felt every time he went off by himself, he figured he wouldn’t have changed Danny being the one to go after Granger for the world.  



	12. Sizzle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mmm, indian fry bread, been craving this all week . . . looks like it worked it way into here too.

After the initial booking and a short discussion that the only possible reason they were coming in tomorrow was if the apocalypse was coming, they each grabbed what they needed from the office and left close to nine in the evening.

Steve didn’t ask Danny where he wanted to be dropped off after it was decided that the paper work they’d grabbed could wait until after they both had at least eight hours of sleep.

They were both tired and just as Danny opened his mouth to complain about Steve not taking him to his apartment Steve grabbed his wrist and proceeded to drag him into his house and up the stairs to his bedroom.

He turned to look at Danny his head cocked to the side, waiting for the shorter man’s decision.

Danny looked between Steve and the bed then the side of his mouth quirked up a bit in a tired smile and shrugged before he began striping his clothes off down to his boxers. Steve grinned and did the same before climbing into the king sized bed. They fitted themselves against each other and relaxed, no words spoken between them as they drifted to sleep in each other’s arms.

Neither woke restless from nightmares, bad memories, or hopes of what could be between them through the night, exhaustion from the past two days and the two different cases having drained them of all energy.

Danny hadn’t been a morning person for a long time, not since his and Rachel’s marriage had started to deteriorate around four years ago. He often found it hard to sleep and even harder to stay that way, especially since he was away from his little girl and recently because he wasn’t sure he could be with the man he was realizing he loved.

Steve was a light sleeper, up with the dawn or the smallest of noise. The only times he found he ever slept soundly and deeply was after some serious physical exertion, either sex or exercise, or with medication. He disliked dulling his senses and the medication often left him fuzzy headed and sleepy for the rest of the day after.

That’s not to say he had always slept like that, he’d only really began to have trouble sleeping after his mother died and he was off to Annapolis. When he became part of the SEALs he had newer, even more graphic, reasons to not sleep as deeply as he used to.  


  
~-~-~-~-~

  
Danny woke on his stomach one arm beneath his face and the other hanging off the bed, the early morning sun shining on his face through Steve’s bedroom window. He felt a heavy muscled arm draped across his bare back, the searing body heat making him have goose bumps everywhere else but that area.

Blinking his eyes a few times the blond stretched and yawned, much like a cat with his arms out in front of him and every muscle tense before releasing it and relaxing. The body next to him didn’t even shift so he turned his head to glance at his partner to make sure the man still lived.

What he saw made his breath catch slightly and a soft smile to spread across his face.

Steve was still, for the first time in a long while, deeply asleep. The lines usually on his face from frowning or squinting softened, the muscles completely slack, and his mouth set into a content smile. There was no tension in his body and his breathing was deep and even, deeper than it ever had been when he’d fallen asleep at HQ, in the car at a stakeout, or even after a night with Catherine, though Danny didn’t know that.

Danny didn’t feel tried anymore, didn’t even feel the need for the coffee the team believed he mainlined in order to survive. He rolled to his side in order to look better at Steve and got a frown from the still asleep man. The arm that had been lain across his back now curled around him and tried to pull him closer, when that didn’t work, bleary slate blue eyes slitted opened, trying to comprehend the reason why his partner wasn’t moving as he’d like him too.

Steve grabbed Danny’s shoulder and pulled as he rolled onto his back, causing Danny to fall against his chest with an ‘oomph’ and a chuckle. Danny grumbled good naturedly as he situated himself comfortably on-top of Steve’s chest.

“You know, Steven, if you just wanted to cuddle with me all you had to do was ask.”

Danny grinned into the skin of Steve’s neck as the man groaned, still half asleep, “Danno, shut up and go back to sleep it’s,” Steve glanced at the bedside clock, “Christ, it’s ten thirty. We slept for more than twelve hours.”

Steve rubbed a hand over his face, trying to reason with himself why it wasn’t a good idea to just go back to sleep. When he looked down at the blond head that just lay there passively, a usually animated hand still on his chest. The tall brunet sighed and rubbed his nose through the blonde’s hair, taking in the man’s scent and closed his eyes, slipping into a slight doze.

“Steve. I’m hungry.”

Steve groaned at being roused once more.

“Then go eat something.”

“I can’t, you see there’s this octo-SEAL and he won’t let me go.”

“Can’t you just lay here with me for another half an hour? Would it really be so terrible for me to sleep in just once?”

“Well, no, not really, but we only ate here and there yesterday and I’m starving. I’m sure you are too, actually, despite the whole I’m a tough SEAL and can go without for days attitude, hell that attitude is probably the reason you haven’t slept well either.”

The devious grin Steve could feel on Danny’s face caused both annoyance and amusement to bloom in Steve’s chest.

“At least you got the right division, this time. Is there a reason why you’re so animated this early in the morning, or are you always like this and I just never got to see it?”

“I haven’t been sleeping well since before Rachel and I got divorced, I used to get up before the sun rose for kicks. I slept so well last night I woke up this morning without the need of caffeine, though later I might still be inflicted with a headache from the lack there of. If I keep on sleeping like that, you might even get me to go out for a swim with you in the mornings.”

Danny pushed himself up on an elbow and grinned cheekily at the man beneath him.

Steve sighed and stretched, his arms straining towards the head board and his back in an almost perfect arc drawing Danny’s eyes down the length of him. Steve’s eyes were still closed so he missed the way Danny’s pupils expanded in arousal before he forced himself to look away from the long lithe form and got out of bed.

“Breakfast sounds delightful, what do you think?” Steve cracked an eye at his partner, wondering at the slightly strangled tone of his voice. He opened both eyes and looked his fill of his partner’s normally hidden physique.

His own eyes dilated with lust and he had to clear his throat in order to answer properly.

“Sounds good, hopefully we won’t be called out after we finish our paperwork from yesterday.”

Danny shrugged and started to go down the stairs when he paused, a contemplative look passing over his face.

“Instead of pancakes, you mind if I make something Nana would make us? It goes good with fruit, well at least berries—do you like berries?—but it might go well with what you have and if not we still have the Prickly Pear Jelly Nana sent me. That sound like a plan?”

Steve blinked as he thought about it for a moment before nodding.

“Sure, it doesn’t have too much sugar or anything in it does it?”

Danny rolled his eyes as he turned and started going downstairs once more.

~-~-~-~-~

  
Steve silently padded down the stairs and stopped to see Danny kneading a large ball of dough on the counter, his arms and shoulders definitely going into working it the way he wanted. Steve had to push down the sudden rush of desire that pooled low in his belly as he watched his partner, focused fiercely on the task at hand.

He watched Danny so intently he jumped when the man spoke and set the dough off to the side and began cleaning up the mess.

“If you’re going to stand there you can help, Steven, start cutting up the mangos you have, they would be good with this.”

They worked in tandem, Steve handling the fruit as Danny cleaned and proceeded to get out the various utensils and plates they would need for breakfast.

“I know you don’t like fried things but these are just freakin’ awesome, you have no idea, plus they are not as bad as donuts, no sugar or anything in it. We used to eat them with just chunks of the Prickly Pear, or honey, sometimes even plain.”

Steve set aside the blood red jelly he was subtly stealing a taste of before he finished cutting up the mangos.

“It’s ok, it’s just not something we can eat all the time, like the malasadas of coco puffs Chin got you a couple weeks ago.”

He watched as Danny nodded and pinched off pieces of dough and began to form several balls all roughly the same size, his flour coated hands expertly rolling the dough into the shapes he wanted.

Steve had to swallow as his blood heated in his veins, images of what else those fingers could do to certain aspects of his anatomy flashing through his mind.

“Could you get out that cast iron skillet and fill it with about a half inch of that healthy oil you demand we use.”

Steve made a face as he pushed his thoughts away and did as he was asked.

“It’s better for you than normal vegetable oil, besides aren’t you the one who complained about the vegetable oil?”

“What can I say, I like olive oil, it leaves a good flavor behind and if the flavor isn’t needed I use the light olive oil, but this stuff? The flax seed oil? I had never heard of it before I met you.”

“It’s better than the olive oil.”

“Whatever. Just bring the oil to a low boil will you? I just have to flatten these out some and fry them then we can eat them.”

Steve leaned back against the counter out of the way any watched Danny as he finished making breakfast.

“So, unless we’re called in later, all we have to do is fill out all the forms and write up the reports for the arrest yesterday. Is there anything else you want to do today?”

Danny paused for a moment from moving the done bread to a plate covered in a paper towel.

“I could check around the island for another place to ride, the chase yesterday made me realize how much I miss it and I want to compare places before I make a commitment. Otherwise, no not really, you?”

Steve swallowed, “I have some ideas.”

The blond turned and locked eyes with Steve, the sizzle of the skillet framing the raw heat that boiled between them.

Danny raised an eyebrow and tried to speak, but all that came out was a hoarse croak.

“Yeah,” he cleared his throat, “yeah, I think I can get on board with that.”

Steve gave him a slow sexy smile and Danny turned back to what he was doing and quickly finished what he was doing.

When the last piece was done Steve walked up behind Danny and flipped off the burner and moved the skillet to the back, lining himself up against the shorter blonde.

Steve bent his head and nipped at the back of Danny’s neck and grinned as he heard the strangled moan that came out of the blonde’s throat.

He gripped Danny’s hips and pulled him hard back against him continuing to nip and lick and kiss down his throat, sucking hard on the skin between his neck and shoulder, causing the man to groan.

Danny panted as he held onto the counter, head thrown back on Steve’s shoulder, trying to move his own against the hips behind him.

Letting go with one hand, Danny grabbed the back of Steve’s head and dragged him up to connect their mouths.

It wasn’t like the kisses they’d already shared.

No, this kiss was more like they were trying to devour each other, teeth scraping against lips and tongues, tongues delving deep, chasing the taste of the other, ravenous for more.

Steve had to let go of Danny’s hip in order to hold the other man as they kissed, winding his fingers in blond hair.

Danny twisted around and forcefully separated his mouth to latch it onto the base of Steve’s chin, making his own mark on his partner, causing a whimper to escape Steve’s throat as stubble scrapped against his sensitive skin.

 _“God_ —upstairs, now, need to see, touch— _Christ, right there, yes.”_

Steve started to walk backwards, Danny trailing behind with his mouth trying to nip and bite at Steve’s neck as they moved. Danny tongue and lips finding a particularly sensitive spot just underneath Steve’s jaw line and he tortured it with everything he had.

When they reached the stairs they separated reluctantly, though no heat was lost between them, breathes heaving in their chests eyes dilated so wide there was no color left and the kept touching and stroking each other feeding the flames of desire that licked at their spine.

Steve body checked Danny up against the wall once they were both on the landing, knee slipping between his partner’s legs firmly against the heat there, his hands cupping Danny’s ass, and teeth nibbling and sucking at an ear.

Danny moaned loudly and rocked his hips against Steve’s, his own palms places of searing heat against shoulders, fingers digging into flesh, he lifted a leg and wrapped it as well as he could against Steve, settling against the knee better and lining himself up to his partner perfectly.

They rutted against each other for a few moments before Danny tried to push Steve away and only succeeded rubbing gun calloused hands over sensitive nipples.

Steve gasped loudly, “ _Jesus Fuck._ Bed . . . have to . . . bed, _now.”_

“ _Yes_ —bed, brilliant— _shit, Steve_ —idea.”

Just because it was a plan didn’t mean they acted on it right away, instead Steve grabbed Danny’s lower lip, puffy from kissing and biting, with his teeth and sucked it into his mouth.

Danny whimpered and dropped his leg from around Steve’s hip and began maneuvering them into the bedroom. He would have tripped and fallen onto his ass if Steve hadn’t had such a good grasp on it, instead they fell into bed, Danny’s legs falling open enough to cradle Steve against him.

They had been in the their boxers since last night and they disappear quickly though not fast enough if the sounds Steve made as he worked them of Danny hips was any indication.

Sweat slicked flesh rub against each other as the heat between them continued to escalate.  
Danny could feel that this would be over far quicker than he wanted it too; he just had to get Steve— _“Fuck!”_

Sharp canine teeth held the nub of his nipple between themselves, pulling and squeezing with delicious pressure.

His hands gripped Steve’s ass tightly, pulling the man down tightly as he began to lose himself to his orgasm.

Steve’s own muscles clench tightly as Danny threw his head back with a throaty cry, muscles taunt with pleasure, heels digging into his thighs and fingers clenching next to his hole.

Those digits twitched across it just as he thrust one last time against the blond and Steve lost it himself, sinking his teeth into Danny’s shoulder.

It was a few minutes before either of them were able to even think form the euphoria flooding their systems.

Steve levered himself up and off of his partner and rolled to the sighed, his breathing returning to normal. He had to swallow again as he looked Danny over, coated in cum and red marks from his teeth.

Possessiveness welled fiercely up his spine, knowing that he put them there, that he made this man come undone like this.

Dazed blue eyes caught his and he couldn’t help but grin.

Next time, they’d start this in the bedroom; hopefully they would be able to do more than thrust against each other to get off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some good recipes if you want them: http://www.manataka.org/page180.html


	13. Sky Blue Intensity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their morning had mostly been spent in bed, indulging themselves in each other’s skin and touch.

Steve leaned against the door jamb to the kitchen as he watched Danny go through the reports in a pair of his shorts and nothing else.

The blonds’ hair was in disarray, shimmering gold in the sunlight streaming through the windows. The tattoo on his shoulder moved with his arm as he worked, looking like dancing, teasing, sentient, shadows. He had a piece of fry bread in one hand with honey drizzled on it and a pen in the other, a mug of coffee off to the side of the stack of paper work in front of him. He was once again intensely focused on what was in front of him, quickly and efficiently filling out the forms.

He hadn’t realized that Danny’s focus behind a rifle lent itself to other areas of his life, too. It was . . . was sexy. Those blue eyes were light in nature, but they were intense, full of fire and passion. When he focused, those surf blue orbs zeroed in on their targets and didn’t let up.

It sent shivers up his spine.

Their morning had mostly been spent in bed, indulging themselves in each other’s skin and touch. When Danny’s stomach had growled at them the man had grinned and rolled out of bed and then scavenged through his drawers until he found a pairs of Steve’s shorts and pulled them on.

The rush of possessiveness that rushed through him rivaled that of when he saw himself coated on and dripping off of the blond earlier that morning. It was like a wild fire was burning itself through his veins, never going out completely or for long. He’d wanted his partner almost from the beginning and now he didn’t think he could ever stop or hold the rampant need back.

Danny finished the report for the Governor’s office with a flourish, done with the final piece after an hour. He sorted through it all and grouped them together with their destinations and which one’s Steve had to sign, having filled them out for the man as well as his own. 

“Alright Steve, now you just have to sign these and we have to drop them off at HQ and we’re done for the day. Steve?”

Danny looked up and caught the heat in Steve’s eyes, “We’ve already spent all morning in bed, don’t tell me you’re ready to go again?”

Steve just grinned at the more Midwestern accent coming from the shorter man. He found it was different, bits and pieces from both New Jersey and New Mexico mixing in his voice. He walked over and flung himself onto the couch next to Danny, “Nah, I’m good. What do I have to sign? What are we going to do after we submit them?”

Danny shrugged as he leaned back against Steve’s body, “That stack right there, it just needs your signature, as for what we should do afterword, I was thinkin’ we could get some steaks or some fish and cook it out back and take a nap in that hammock you have. With the sun and the breeze, it’ll be perfect.”

“Spend the afternoon in the hammock, huh? Sounds like you’re almost making yourself a home here, Danno. Thought you didn’t like the beach and all?”

“Never really spent much time at the beach except in Jersey and it was mostly cold and . . . I wouldn’t say dirty, ‘cause they’re not, but they aren’t as bright or beautiful as they are here. They don’t even hold as much significance there as here. Plus, for a while the sand made me think of home and it hurt, knowing I was so far from it.”

Steve ran his fingers through the golden strands on Danny’s head, “Makes sense, though I didn’t know New Mexico had a lot of sand, thought it was mostly rocks and stuff.”

Danny sighed and almost purred as Steve’s finger tips massaged his scalp. His hair and scalp had always been one of the most sensitive places on his body and Steve was close to figuring that out. A little more and soon the man would realize he’d be able to get him to agree with anything as long as he was doing that.

“Mmmm, yeah, there are lots of things in New Mexico you wouldn’t think about.” He couldn’t help the moan that slipped out when Steve tugged on his hair and his body became pliable in his capable Navy trained hands.

Steve’s eyebrow rose as he watched Danny turn into a gooey puddle in his arms. He had pulled on those tempting blond strands earlier, but he’d had no idea how much it had really affected him. 

Steve watched closely as he tugged on them again and started to smirk as his partner groaned and shifted his hips. He twirled a few of the strands around his fingers and ran the tips of them across his scalp making the man to purr at him and shift against him again, the sensations obviously causing him to react in an aroused manner. His smirk turned into a sly grin as he thought of seeing what else he could do with Danny like this.

Danny opened glazed blue eyes at Steve’s face, “You—you can’t—hmm, yeah—can’t hold this against me.”

“I promise not to use this against you. At work.”

Danny tried to scowl but he was feeling too good to keep it up, “Fine, whatever, not at work. Just keep doing that.”He tried to swat at the SEAL but he barely put any effort into it at all and murmured under his breath as he became drowsy, “You realize, you keep doing that and not only will I fall asleep, we won’t hand in our paperwork and we won’t have those steaks or the fish we talked about earlier.”

He couldn’t help the whimper that escaped his throat when Steve stopped.

Steve grinned down at the man in his lap, “Give me the papers I need to sign, Danno. This way we can go drop them off, pick up the food and spend the rest of our day in the sun.”

Danny sighed and heaved himself up, blinking lazily at Steve his blue eyes hazy, “M’kay, that stack right there needs your signature.” He picked up the sheaf of papers and shuffled through them, presenting him with the places needing signed. Once they were done, Steve watched as the blond stood and stretched, tan skin marked with bites and hickeys rippling from the muscles underneath, the papers held securely in one hand, the other clenched tightly in a fist above his head.

Danny went up stairs and he stood to follow, not really wanting to get up and go to town but knowing it was needed anyways. Besides, if they didn’t screw around, they’d be back home quickly. Lazing the afternoon away in the hammock in the backyard sounded perfect, there really wasn’t much else that could be better.

Rice with grilled asparagus, Mahi-Mahi, and a Longboard each precluded them both going for a quick swim when they got home. It wasn’t a hard swim, just messing with each other in the water, but it was a perfect way for them to spend their first day off.

As they lazed in the hammock watching the sun set Steve couldn’t help it as his hand migrated back to Danny’s hair his other hand slung lazily across the man’s hip. He once again began playing with the blond strands, luxuriating in the purr like sounds coming from the bare chest that lay off center from his own. The blue eyes he’d become attached to over the months that they had work together barely slitted open in euphoria. Steve couldn’t help the contented grin that creased his face as they laid there in the descending twilight. Today had been the perfect ending to their rather hellish week


	14. Epilogue: These Dust Covered Boots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It wasn't the same as the New Mexican desert he was so used to, filled with volcanic ash and acid rain, but it was still a desert and that's where he was home.

They track a link leading to the leaders of a human and drug trafficking ring all the way to the Kaʻū Desert before they lose the majority of the trail. Steve has Catherine on the phone trying to get her to use the satellite to find where they would be hiding and Chin's eyebrows are furrowed as he does his damnedest to get a triangulation from the cell number they know at least one of the heads have on them. It comes in and out of service so much that he can't get a good lock on it to trace it and his scowl could probably kill if directed at their suspects. Catherine has done her best but she only able to narrow it down to about a hundred miles of dry Hawaiian Desert causing Steve's eyes to be narrowed in his frustrated Aneurism face number 4, trying to possibly shoot lasers from their intensity.

Kono has been cleaning and reassembling her sniper rifle, it's her baby and she has just been named in the top ten best shots on the islands after learning from both Steve and Danny, she's anxious and awaiting orders since this was the only lead they had to finding a congressmen's niece. Danny has gone over every lead and gone over every bit of evidence they have at least three times and he's frustrated, he grew up in the desert, amongst sand and clay and rocks, and he could track their suspect down but Steve is too used to doing it his way that he still sometimes forgets that Danny's got skills none of them have or at least not to the extent he does. He's gone walking in the dry arid heat before just to get away, tracking someone on a little island desert is nothing compared to that. He could leave and they wouldn't be able to find him, he could lose them and they'd never know, but the people they're after they have no experience in the desert and their trail is burning itself into Danny's eyes like a giant neon sign.

It's been months since Danny showed them his true colors; been about two since he broke down and moved in with Steve. He has a stake in a local stable with a black and white pinto Morgan colt that's close to four and he's got him almost trained just right. He's so sure footed and graceful Danny couldn't help but name him Slick when he helped Nana Ignacia birth the silly foal that night years ago when Grace had still been so tiny and his marriage good. He's glad that Steve helped him bring him here even though he misses Chaser horribly since he passed. Danny finds it increasingly funny, despite the few setbacks it's caused, that he's somehow found a balance between him being a city boy and the one that grew up on a ranch. The ties have almost permanently disappeared and it isn't unusual for him to wear jeans or t-shirt anymore mixed amongst his dress shirts and slacks. More oft than not he's back to a pair of old worn boots he's had for ages instead of the loafers he'd secretly despised or a pair of chucks that Steve can't seem to wrap his head around him wearing. 

He's free here in Hawaii in a way he's never been except on the Ranch in New Mexico, he's still a Haole but most times now he spits Spanish or Navajo back at the people throwing pidgin at him and he smirks at them as they puzzle over his words. Many, he thinks when thoughts of his homes over the years surface, used to call him gringo or dumb hick. Haole is just another name that doesn't fit right.

He can't help but roll his eyes and gesture for Kono to follow him when he's had enough of waiting and his suggestions being ignored by the two more _experienced_ islanders. They leave a note and grab the equipment Danny has secured while the SEAL and older Cop talk about what else they can do. Danny has alerted this islands branch of the HPD and they have wide band Radios that have miles for range. They have water and food and space blankets packed just in case; their weapons in their customary places with knives hidden in their packs for extra back up. He gives Kono a ball cap and puts on his own slightly battered cowboy hat, sunscreen and sunglasses for both of them. He's got a map and a compass and a direct line to dispatch so they will have someone charting where they're going. He's gunna teach the rookie how to track in the desert the way he learned, and not with fancy machines that often times he breaks rather than uses correctly.

When Kono points this out he just grins at her and points out he was raised as a country boy, a ranch hand, what's he gunna use half that stuff for anyways? She laughs at him and concedes to his point and then falls slightly in awe as he points out the signs to her, reading the ground and faint scuff marks as easily as one of the reports on his desk. She's only seen him in his natural element a few times, and each makes her wonder what home is to him, he's learning to surf and to live with the beach, he copes with all the greenery around with all the odd animals that pop up. But now she follows his sure footed walk as he follows a trail she's still learning to see, he doesn't stumble or look uncertain, if anything he looks more at home now than ever. And when he pauses and he tips his hat back to look at the position of the sun and follow the trail out with his eyes she can't help but grin as she watches him fall into what they're doing his gait silent and quick. 

She's only seen him be so silent few times before, and right now it's like he's a ghost walking this volcanic ground. She watches the signs as he points them out, learns how to see them as he does and slightly marvels that he isn't leaving any trail himself and as she is. She can see the disturbances she's leaving in her wake but there is nothing to show that the compact man beside her is even there or ever was. At one point she's so engrossed with following the trail she doesn't realize that Danny isn't with her and there are no traces of him anywhere. The stray thought that he really is a ghost passes through her mind before she shakes it off and radios in her position before following the trail once more. She goes on for a good hour when she gets slightly stuck, the trail showing that there was a scuffle and several directions are taken at once.

She denies ever screaming when Danny's hand settles on her shoulder.

His grin is mischievous when their radios crackle to life and they hear from their partners; they share a look that's half exasperated and half amused that it took them this long to catch up. They tell them their current coordinates and Danny tells them about the scuffle that went on between the fleeing heads of their current criminal organization, tells them that one of them is now lame in one leg and another more than likely has a dislocated shoulder, he can't help the grin that crosses his face when Kono accurately tells them it's three people they're tracking and one of them is probably the brains of the whole thing and the other two are working under his orders and they're the ones that were fighting.

They follow the even more exaggerated trail, their prey even more sloppy with their wounds. It doesn't take them long before Danny motions for a halt and turns his radio down to almost mute, their near an out cropping of rocks, probably from the last eruption, and as she turns down her own radio she listens and hears the argument their prey is have amongst themselves. She keeps silent, knowing Danny's probably going to quiz her on when the trail changed from hours to just minutes old. They stalk up behind them and draw their weapons and train them the leader, the only man with a weapon. It takes just seconds for them to surrender, the three dehydrated and dusty and tired from the trek through desert heat without water or knowledge of where they were going.

When they get back to the station Kono is bouncing with pride, having led them back the way they came by following her lead and how well she took to Danny's lessons, quick though they were. She can tell that neither man waiting for them is happy but at the same time they're impressed with what they've accomplished.

The interrogation goes surprisingly easy but their captives are tired and woozy and it doesn't take them long to break. The girl had found out about their operation when one of her friends had gone missing, that they already knew, she was going to expose them to her father if they hadn't done something so they had taken her and tried to pawn her off unto one of their clients. Turns out she was just a shade too mouthy and knew too much before he had decided to kill her and they were charged with the clean up for giving him faulty merchandise.

It sickens all of them but they get a client list and learn the whereabouts of the body and return her to her father. And if later Steve finds Danny lying silently in the hammock out back with his hat over his face and his shoulders tense it's just between them, they each have their own coping mechanisms.

Danny twitches at the feel of warm skin pressed against his side and he sighs, some of the tension melting away into weariness; he loves his job but Grace gets older by the day and their victims somehow seem to just keep getting younger and it breaks his heart. He removes the hat and lays it on his chest before turning his head and buries his nose into Steve's side, trying to hide from his thoughts and grins softly as he feels an arm wrap around his shoulders and Steve's hip settling more firmly against his own. At least he's himself now, no longer hiding and with a man who loves him either way.

Somehow this strange paradise has become home, has almost become perfect; he's fully happy and content for the first time since Grace was born. 

He just won't tell Steve he actually likes Hawaii, no need to swell the ridiculous man's ego even more after all.


End file.
